Hopeless Kingdom
by Freedom Deluxe
Summary: When Kenneth Morgan is captured by Talon and augmented into the merciless killer, Orpheus. What will his fiancé, Angela Zeigler, do to get him back? How will loved ones go on without Kenneth? Now that Kenny is dead and gone, can Orpheus earn salvation? Or will Orpheus fall into the same vengeful snare as those who oppose him?
1. Ember To Inferno

They say that a snake waits patiently. That a snake lies waiting for prey, hours upon end. Until the weak show themselves, until they make a foolish, costly mistake. One that is priced with life. The snake lies coiled, then it strikes, plunges his fangs deep into the skin of the helpless prey. Then the venom rends the flesh beneath. Then the poor creature realizes, there is no way out. There is but one door, and that door leads to death. So, the body grows stiff as the prey silences, to dream nevermore.

Kenny cannot remember anything before his abduction. His name is an odd exemption to this though. His memory begins waking up on an operating table, his hands, feet, and waist clamped to the table. He tried to speak. _What the fuck? Why can't I talk? Where am I? Why am I here?_ Kenny thought. Then a woman with swept back red hair looked him in the eye. "You're finally awake Mr. Morgan. You are most likely wondering why you are here, yes? I can tell by the panic in your eyes," The scientist chuckled, "I'll tell you this much, _boy_. The Talon Corporation has a very special place for you within our ranks, whether you can make it depends on if you survive the initial series of 'tests' that we have lined up. Failure will result in your death Mr. Morgan. With that, we may now begin," she said with mild irritation.

A large muscular man walked in the lab before they could begin. "Is this the one? I expect this to not fail, Moira," he said.

"Rest assured, Doomfist. His cellular structure has a strong base makeup, perfect for introducing new genomes to; plus the sedative cleared his memory of everything, his memory began when he woke up. Moira said.

"Good," his voice boomed, "then you will not mind if I stay to see things through? Not that I distrust your abilities, Moira."

"Not at all...enjoy the show." Moira said flipping a switch.

Electric currents immediately began surging through Kenny's body. He writhed in agony but was unable to express his pain. His eyes widened in pain, his senses started sending signals he had never felt before. This pain was immense. Every minute, three bursts of electricity. _Zap... zap... zap_ , followed by muffled screams of agony. After ten hellacious minutes of the accursed cycle, Moira dubbed him ready for the genetic augmentation.

Moira and her team of doctors, each picked Kenneth up by a limb, his body was warm to the touch and he suffered a few minor burns, but nothing physically major. Mentally he was starting to crack. Once Kenny was upon another operation table, Moira took four green tubes, she put one in both of his arms in a main artery, and she done the same to his legs.

The stage was set for the mad geneticist to throw her twisted creation upon this somber threshold.

Then with the flip of a switch, a viscous green liquid began rushing down the tubes, once they entered Kenny's body, he became inhuman. His eyes became fluorescent green and developed slit pupils, his eyes also were able to see on an infrared spectrum now, then flexible but durable scales formed over his skin, they were black with undertones of the same green. His teeth formed into long venomous fangs. His tongue became slender and forked. His transformation was complete within mere moments.

Moira laughed with pride at her creation, "Kenneth Morgan is no more, I give you, 'Orpheus' the latest creation of Project Prometheus," Moira said.

"As per the usual, magnificent work, Dr. O'Deorain. You exceed all expectations of you," Akande praised her work.

"I thank you deeply, Akande," Moira said with a bow, "Now let us unbind him, so that Kenneth may see this world as Orpheus!"

"You've done well today, Moira. And you know that my praise is not given out freely," Doomfist said.

"We can begin cognitive testing, but anything related to combat he will need a little time to get used to his new body, the mental reconditioning was very little in his case. His will was broken easily, so not nearly as much was required as Mrs. Lacroix in her case," Moira bantered.

"About Widowmaker..." Akande began.

A few hours passed as they chatted. They both thought Orpheus was unconscious, but he did what he could. _He listened._ Listened to everything that they said. Eventually they began on him.

"We must test what we can, let him out of the chamber," Doomfist said.

"As you wish, but I cannot say for certain what he will do," Moira advised. She nonetheless activated the switch to release him.

 _The pain_ , _oh god, the pain_. Every little thing, burned the soul. Kenny felt his shackles untighten. He opened his eyes and he was in a chamber, and on the outside was the same woman and a muscular man. He got up with incredible new speed he saw the door open, he immediately bolted to the door, he saw the muscular man poised for battle. The Doomfist Gauntlet on his right hand mattered none to the newfound primeval instincts inside of him.

Kenny immediately charged at the man, but in an instance a rocketing punch connected with Kenny's chest, he collapsed to the ground wheezing, he had gotten the breath knocked out of him, and his new reptilian lungs were still weak.

Doomfist predicted Orpheus' actions to a parallel. He calmly walked over to the downed operative, he grabbed his head with the gauntlet powered hand. "I could tear your head off of your shoulders, you answer to Talon now, is that clear? If it is not, you will be terminated," he said firmly.

Orpheus grunted in pain, but his eyes obeyed. Doomfist relented and walked out of the room. Moira walked over to Orpheus and began helping him up. "Get up, we must get you equipped for your training," she said.

"What happened, where, _who_ , am I? My head is on fire," Orpheus started.

"Silence. Your code name is Orpheus, your past name does not matter as the man you were is dead, you are but an apparatus in his husk," Moira said.

She led him to the armory, Orpheus was still in his testing garments, Moira led him to a wall. On it was his outfit. Orpheus first picked off the wall an armored, and flexible black robe, it was sleeveless and had two green lines of hardened leather running down from each shoulder, it had a hood that the stripes ran up. Orpheus then picked out a par of lightweight boots that increased his overall agility, they had talons on the tips to dig into surfaces.

"Are you finished now?" Moira asked. Orpheus nodded and she led him over to a mannequin wearing his weapon kit.

Moira took a rebreather off and gave it to Orpheus. He put it on his face, it connected to his tissue and a small cord ran out of his hood and into his back. It covered his face up to just under his eye sockets. It helped instill fear with it's green lighting, the same as his eyes. Then Moira picked a holstered yautja style throwing disc up and gave it to him. It was housed on his right thigh, and could be easily concealed by his robe. It was made from bronze and could extend in the center to become handheld easily but unable to throw. He was practically set, all exempt for his main weapon, the wrist blade.

Moira pulled out a set of medium length double bladed dual wrist blades. She laid them down on the table in front of Orpheus. Then she grabbed a long sharp single blade, known by its sovereign users as the "kris" blade. In an instant Orpheus choose the elongated kris blade. "A wise choice, Orpheus, this one comes with a few extra toys, designed by yours truly, than the older obsolete model," Moira added as Orpheus strapped the runed holster to his right forearm.

He walked over to the final table where Moira awaited him. She was holding a gauntlet. "This gauntlet," she began, "dare I say has more tactical functionality than the Doomfist Gauntlet. It goes over your left hand like a glove, but it extends up to just below your elbow, as to not hinder movement." Moira said handing the glove to Orpheus.

He slid it over his hand, it made mechanical clanking noises as it unraveled onto his forearm. Then it fused to his tissue, to be sure that it did not fall off in combat, much like his rebreather. Both are still removable though.

"That glove has two main functions. I call it the 'Falconer Gauntlet.'It has top of the line cloaking capabilities to rival even Sombra's. It's second function is to control this," Moira said, handing him a drone that was shaped like the letter v. It had exhausts at the tip if each end.

"That drone, which I call the 'Falcon' can provide silent recon over your targeted region, it is heat seeking and can be upgraded to house a small silent minigun should you require it. The drone is completely silent and is controlled using the gauntlet on your left arm. This will be quite useful to you I suspect," Moira concluded.

Orpheus raised the gauntlet to be used, he commanded the drone to fly to him, and land on his gauntlet. It responded effortlessly and smoothly. He smiled devilishly. Orpheus commanded it to cloak and preform thermal scanning, it done so perfectly. He discovered it even had a vocal analyzer and could record audio in perfect quality and even read lips from a distance. He commanded it to rest, it landed on the bottom part of his gauntlet and folded up to look like an extra command module on the bottom.

Moira then led Orpheus to the operative quarters, which was separated from the solder barracks. Talon spared no expense on their operatives, which included Reaper, Widowmaker, Sombra, Doomfist, Moira, and now Orpheus. Although six rooms were taken each had a control pad to the left of the door itself and a large amount of room between each door. A number was on each door, Orpheus' number was six. Moira gave him the passcode to his door and left him to explore his quarters. "Be ready for your combat training tomorrow," she said, leaving him.

His room was beside Widowmaker's and in front of Sombra's. As he walked in he was astonished by the sheer space, it was like a medium-sized cabin. Even though everything was fused into three rooms, being the main room, bathroom, and bedroom. The main room had a comfy couch in the middle and a large flatscreen tv facing the door with the wall behind it. To the left corner behind it was where the kitchen supplies were. To the right of the tv was the main bedroom which was a large king size bed with a nightstand on each side. The room was just big enough for the door to shut with those. To the left was the bathroom. It housed a toilet, shower and a jacuzzi for extra comfort.

Orpheus jumped over the back of the couch and landed on it, he put his hands behind his head, and dozed off.


	2. Mirror, Mirror

Orpheus was abruptly awoken from his dreamless slumber by a knock on his door. It was light, not a very hard knock but enough to garner attention. He got up and pressed a button on the doorframe. The door split open and revealed a tall and slender woman, and her skin was... _purple? Blue? What the fuck?_

Hello, serpent," her words seemed kind, but Orpheus knew that they were laced with a venom just as toxic as his. _The French accent didn't help either._

Orpheus had an astonished look on his face.

She wore a multi-shades of purple skintight latex suit and had an odd visor on her head. Orpheus realized that he was still dressed to kill, clearly she was as with the rifle slung over her shoulder. So it must've not mattered much around here. She had a wine in her hand.

"Greetings." He said in a dull distorted voice. This was the first time Orpheus had heard himself speak as well, he was just as surprised by his tone as the woman.

"I am Widowmaker," she said with a graceful bow.

"I'm-" Orpheus began.

"I know who you are already, Orpheus. The latest test from Project: Prometheus. As one subject to another, I have a gift for you," she held out the bottle of wine, "Oaked Chardonnay, the most exquisite white wine, and a personal favorite of mine."

"Thanks I guess. Never was much for wine, I always was a whiskey man. My liquor has to have a nice kick. Nonetheless I'll drink it." Orpheus said examining the bottle.

"Au revoir, serpent," Widowmaker said walking away.

Orpheus was hit by a sudden realization.

"Wait!" Orpheus stopped her, "What did you mean about ' _Project: Prometheus?'_ "

She turned around with a sardonic grin, "You will know in due time, Orpheus. Enjoy the wine."

With that Widowmaker headed down the corridor. Orpheus walked back in his room and set the wine on the small countertop of his kitchen. That conversation with Widowmaker May have been incredibly brief but it had sparked a nerve. " _Project: Prometheus." "As one subject to another."_ These words bounced around Orpheus' mind as he repeated them under his breath. _Was she like him?_ Orpheus racked his empty mind for something to connect with Widowmaker's past and Prometheus as he searched for a wine glass. Then he found a near dead link. _Widowmaker had something to do with Overwatch! Was she one of them at one time? Was I?_

Orpheus toyed with these thoughts, trying his damnedest to connect these feeble strands of memory. _Did she remember something he didn't?_ Orpheus kept thinking as he uncorked the wine. He still wished it was whiskey but beggars can't be choosers. _Whiskey. Why do I like whiskey when I can't even remember tasting it?_ Orpheus had quite the paradoxical situation. He poured the Chardonnay into the wine glass. He filled it only roughly half full. Orpheus took off his rebreather and brought the wine to to his lips. He took a sip of it, he knew some etiquette at least. A fine wine had to be savored, not knocked back in a drunken stupor.

Then the door knocked again. This time much harder and with ferocity. Orpheus put the wine down and walked over to the door again. He opened it again and a black robed man with a mask stood there.

"You're Reaper aren't you?" Orpheus croaked.

"Yeah. I'm your overseer for your first mission. And yes, you're going to get your training form adaption in the field. So you, Widowmaker, Moira, and I are to stop a pitifully formed strike team, trying to steal technology from Talon. We have to keep them from taking it, and if they do we have to take it back," Reaper growled.

"Alright. When do we leave?" Orpheus asked.

"Now," Reaper said. The two of them walked to the nearby hangar where Moira and Widowmaker awaited them.

Part II:

Angela was nearing her wits end. It was almost three months since she had last seen Kenny, her beloved. He said he'd meet her at home and he'd cook a special dinner just for her, after he went to the supermarket to get the ingredients. Kenny never returned home. Angela had gotten little to no sleep in the time since then. She was dedicated to finding him. She was holding her head up with a weakening hand in their study. Her hair was an utter mess, it wasn't in her normal ponytail style. She had just got through another breakdown. _Am I loosing my mind? Why can't I keep myself together? Why can't I find him?_ Her mind was in shambles. Kenneth going missing had taken a toll on her physically, emotionally, and mentally. She had near nothing to go on to find him. Save for the text he sent her. " _Going to the store to get some groceries after we get off work. You just go on home and wait on me. Don't worry I'll be there, love you Angela."_

The thought that he was dead crossed her mind. She began sobbing lightly again. She held an old shirt of Kenneth's to her face and sobbed in it. Crying was something she did a lot since then. It was within known norms now. Then she heard the door to the study creak open.

"Angela?" A gruff voice said.

"I'm over here." She said, not caring who it was.

Their heavy clack on the hardwood floor meant it was only one person, _Reinhardt_. The aging crusader walked over to the medic and put his scarred yet still gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Angela," his German accent spoke, "Jack still needs you. He wanted me to tell you something."

"What is it," Angela said through tears.

"We may have come across something that could find Kenneth." Reinhardt said.

A small spark of hope was kindled in Angela.

"How?" She said.

"Jack found out about experimental technologies developed by Talon for locating soldiers who were missing in action. The project was scrapped however and is now kept near Eichenwalde. The tomb of my mentor, Baldreich Von Adler." Reinhardt said.

"You want my help why? Kenny is probably dead, and I can't bring him back." Angela said.

"Overwatch May just be freshly reformed, but they still need their medic, _you_ are that medic, as I am their shield." Reinhardt said firmly.

Angela sighed and stood up. She walked over to the aging crusader. She looked him in the eye and with deep regret, she told Reinhardt to inform Jack that she would be there to help her team. If there was even the smallest chance that that device could find Kenneth, then she had to chance it.


	3. Try

Orpheus looked out of the side of the cloaked dropship. The flight from France to this " _wretched decaying castle,"_ in Widowmaker's words, wasn't that long but it still wasn't exactly short either. Of course none of the other passengers were the best at conversations either. About the only person who had at least a small sense of humor was the pilot of this fucking tub. _Andrew? Was that his name?_ He had cracked a couple of jokes with Orpheus while that were awaiting the rest of their strike-team.

Orpheus looked down at his gauntlet. The black steel shone it the brief glimpses of sunlight. He brought up the computer and ran a quick systems diagnostic. Cloak was ready, Falcon was ready, as was all thermal vision. His wrist blade was freshly sharpened and tempered. Rebreather worked fine.

Orpheus was rather disappointed that it took that short of a time. He looked over at Reaper. The wraithlike mask was somewhat menacing in the dim sunlight of the dropship. Reaper noticed Orpheus inspecting him.

"What?!" He growled sharply.

"Nothing, I'm just bored to _death_ over here, Lloyd the Bartender." Orpheus said with a laugh.

"Your not exactly great for conversation Mr. Jack Torrance," Reaper said.

Orpheus laughed, "Maybe you're not half bad after all Reaper."

"I have my certain moments," He said.

 _Reaper is a fucked up card, that's for certain._ The new assassin thought. Orpheus turned his attention to the other two occupants of the hold. Widowmaker was looking out of a window, and Moira was examining the nails on her right hand. Orpheus figured neither of them was exactly bursting with the want to talk. So Orpheus stood up and began walking to the cockpit.

"What's the ETA, Andrew?" Orpheus asked grabbing ahold of a handle on the top.

"Two minuets sir, although the LZ might be hot," Andrew said.

"No problem, we can deal with it," Orpheus said.

Orpheus barely got the words out of his mouth before he heard bullets hitting the side of the dropship eventually tearing into a propeller.

The airship hit a sudden burst of turbulence and began spiraling out of control. Red lights lit up across the dashboard. "Well at least we're at the LZ," Andrew said.

Orpheus started a smartass remark but was cutoff by getting knocked down onto the cold steel floor. Orpheus stood and grabbed onto any handle he could find for balance.

"Get a parachute, Andrew, were blowing this motherfucker." Orpheus said.

"But, sir, Talon protocol states that any pilot of an airship must"-

"Fuck the protocol, do it NOW!"

Orpheus walked back to Reaper and the rest. The wraith was already getting a parachute for Widowmaker on her.

"C'mon Reaper, were getting the fuck out of here before all of us die in a plane wreck." Orpheus said.

"I couldn't agree more," Reaper said throwing Orpheus a parachute.

Just then Andrew burst into the hold with a chunk of metal shrapnel in his chest, he gasped a final breath before his body went limp and fell with the motion of the spiraling airship.

Orpheus turned to the rest of them and mouthed "go." Moira and Widowmaker jumped. Reaper looked back and gave a reassuring nod to Orpheus before he jumped out. Orpheus fiddled with the parachute bag for a precious minute before getting it on. He got it on and ran from the back of the hold into a running jump from the airship. Just as Orpheus jumped the airship crashed into the side of a mountain. The blast sent Orpheus flying wildly off course from his teammates. The Black Forest was deep below him, it seemed smaller from up here. Orpheus looked up and saw the other three parachutes in the far distance, as well as Castle Eichenwalde, one of the parachutes was closer than the others, Orpheus hoped it was Reaper, then he pulled the cord on his parachute and slowly descended to the forest floor.

Orpheus' parachute got caught in a large tree before he could touch the ground. Orpheus cut the parachute off with his kris blade and he dropped to the forest floor. He landed next to a small stream he could see fish swimming upstream. _Trout? Nah, probably not._ Orpheus brought up the copmputor on his Falconer gauntlet. All his vital signs and equipment were still fine, minus his Falcon, the drone's audio receptors were shot, most likely from the explosion that Orpheus narrowly dodged. After a delayed activation, the Falcon slid out of its compartment and uncoiled into its normal state. Orpheus took manual control of the drone and flew it just above the treetops. He activated the thermal tracker and got to work finding his closest ally. _Please find Reaper first, at least then it won't be boring._ The Falcon silently detected four heat signatures within a nearby radius. One seemed a bit dimmer than the others, also it was actually human shaped. The others were a deer and a two birds. The figure was tall, slender, and dim on a thermal spectrum. _Widowmaker._ It had to be her.

Orpheus flew the Falcon closer to her, he watched the figure turn to face the Falcon. He uncloaked the drone, last thing he needed was Widowmaker Putting a bullet in his drone. Upon realization, the figure lowered its rifle. _Definitely her._ He got closer into the forest and disengaged thermal vision. _Yep, it's her._ Orpheus stopped the drone in front of her, she started trying to speak, probably a sardonic or irritated comment, but, Orpheus could not hear her, he spoke into the mic on the drone, "Stay put Widow, I'm gonna leave the drone with you, and track it on my radar. We'll meet up and find Reaper and Moira, got it? Nod if you do because I can't hear you my audio receptors are damaged." Widowmaker rolled her eyes and nodded.

Orpheus closed out the computer and brought up his radar. The Falcon was 353 meters away, nothing but a quick jaunt for him. Orpheus took a running jump and climbed up a tree, his boots digging into the thick bark. He then hopped from tree branch to tree branch, with such fluidity and grace it was like watching a master at work. He arrived at Widowmaker in no time, he did a backflip out of the final tree branch and landed crouching with one hand to the ground.

"That was fast," Widowmaker said.

"Miss me, dearest?" He said.

"No," she remarked coldly.

"I was talking to Falcon, there honey bunches," Orpheus said, as he pressed a button on his glove and the drone flew to him and folded back up to slide into its compartment on the glove.

"You are quite full of yourself. To think that I wasted a _manifique_ bottle of Chardonnay on you," Widowmaker remarked.

"Ah! I actually never properly thanked you for that. You have my thanks, _spider_. You instilled a new appreciation in me for fine liquor," Orpheus said.

Widowmaker sighed with irritation, "Glad to be of service," she said through gritted teeth, "Now let us find Reaper and Moira."

"If we can find a trace of one of them I can track them with Falcon. I could use thermal scanning but it drains her battery quite quickly," Orpheus remarked.

"Then let us get to searching," Widowmaker said.

The two of them walked side by side, Widowmaker had her Widow's Kiss in sniper mode ready to fire.

" _Is she just in a constant state of irritation? Because she is a serious bitch sometimes._ " Orpheus thought to himself. He didn't dare speak those words, especially not in his current situation considering she was his only ally.

Widowmaker was paying him no mind and was looking into the shrubbery. _She's scanning for something to shoot other than me probably._ Orpheus thought with a grin. His mind wandered more until he noticed it was starting to get dark. A cool breeze hit him suddenly, and the sun was waning.

"Dammit." Orpheus cursed.

"What is it?" Widowmaker asked.

"Dusk is setting in." Orpheus said.

"Then we should build an encampment. We cannot move around in the dark. Well, you can, I however cannot," Widowmaker remarked.

"I'll get some firewood. Give me a minute," Orpheus drew his blade and hacked a small tree in half with a single swipe.

They cleared an area and built a fire. Orpheus cut kindling up and let the flames build. His cold-blooded body was drawn to the heat. He sat with his elbows on his knees right in front of the flames . Widowmaker came and sat beside of him.

"Feeling friendly now?" Orpheus prodded.

"No. It may surprise you to learn that you intrigue me a great deal. Especially considering the same conditions created both of us." Widowmaker said.

"Albeit that you got the shortest straw." Orpheus continued, "I got off fairly easily, but what Moira said about what had to be done to you. At one point she described it in great deal while she thought I was still unconscious. It was... Well for lack of a better term, _disturbing_. What they did. I thought I got it bad."

"At least you can't remember the person you were. The husk you inhabit. I'm not Amélie. Yet she still bleeds through my mind. It's like having someone else trying to get into your mind. It causes me terrible headaches and occasional nightmares." Widowmaker said. She looked at Orpheus with what small amount of emotion she could conjure into her eyes.

"I can't remember anything of what I was before I was... _this._ Not a damn thing." Orpheus said, "I guess that's a good thing..."

Orpheus looked to the sky. The moon was in a waning crescent phase. The stars were bright as well.

"Talon took my humanity. They've had me kill innocents that were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. You'll have to do the same." Widowmaker said. She got up and went to the other side of the fire. "You have first watch," she told Orpheus.

As she laid down, Orpheus looked up from the flames. "Who controls it all? Is it the one they call 'Doomfist?'" He asked her.

"Akande Ogundimu. Doomfist. _Oui._ He is the architect of our suffering." Widowmaker said. Orpheus looked back down into the flames, his green eyes flared.

A figure appeared beside him. Reaper formed and sat by the fire. Orpheus looked at him and shook his head.


	4. Architect of Sorrow

Akande Ogundimu was a driven individual to say the least. He was a man of one goal. To plunge the world headfirst into war and chaos. Supposedly it will further humanity's evolution, and make us stronger. Once he reacquired the Doomfist Gauntlet. Very little stood in his way of that goal. The newly reformed Overwatch was one thing, but Akande had an unexpected enemy that he himself created. _Orpheus._ Talon's own creation. _His_ own creation. _His_ own assassin. Orpheus was his idea as was all the assassins in Project: Prometheus. Widowmaker included, as well as a few others deep inside the testing facility of Prometheus.

Doomfist was readying for combat. The dropship he sent to deal with Overwatch at Eichenwalde had crashed due to being shot down according to Moira's field report. Reaper, Widowmaker, and Orpheus were still missing. It was dark now. Doomfist dropped into the Black Forest from his own dropship that left the area immediately. This was all a meager setback. The mission was still going on as planned. He dropped beside of Moira whom was awaiting him. The two set off to get the other three, they were between them and the castle. Akande could see a dim light in the tree. He started towards the light. If a tree was in his way. The man simply punched it aside.

He eventually made his way to Reaper crouching beside a fire. Orpheus and Widowmaker were asleep.

"Get up! The mission is not over. Not while Eichenwalde still stands." Widowmaker and Reaper got up but Orpheus simply rolled in the opposite direction.

Doomfist walked over to him and grabbed his body with his right hand and hoisted him up. "Listen to me and listen well, for this will be your only warning. When I give you an order, unless I specifically said not to beforehand, you are to listen without question. Is that clear?"

Orpheus glared down at him with hatred filled eyes. Orpheus done a backflip and got out of his grasp, "Yes, sir." He said and started walking towards Eichenwalde.

Morning was starting to crack. No doubt the Overwatch agents would be here around dawn, just to hopefully beat Talon. This time they were wrong.

The Talon team reached the crumbling castle first. They arrived in the throne room. The body of Balderiech Von Adler still sat undisturbed. They went behind the throne room and into a dining room. Doomfist punched a hole into the wall. It crumbled to reveal another chamber. Doomfist got Orpheus to follow him into the hallway.

"Down here is where the device that the strike team is after. I have had Sombra hack into their grid and we know who we are expecting. Solder: 76, a.k.a. Jack Morrison, Reinhardt Wilhelm, Genji Shimada, Winston, Tracer, a.k.a. Lena Oxton, and finally Mercy, a.k.a. Angela Zeigler." Doomfist told him.

 _Angela Zeigler._ That name sent a cold discomforting sensation down his spine. It also lingered in his head. Doomfist brought everyone together and told everyone to stack up and dig in. Overwatch was not getting their hands on that device.

Orpheus went to the highest point of the castle beside the bridge to the castle door. He could see a small courtyard across a crumbling stone wall. _Angela...Angela...Angela._ The name kept replaying in his mind. She meant something to who he was. Orpheus looked at the dawning sun. He tried his hardest to remember anything, _anything_ from before Orpheus. From before what he was now.

Then a faint memory hit him. His eyes closed on their own and he was sent back to a different place in his memories. He was in somebody's living room. He looked down at his hands, his gauntlets were still on but his whole figure was transparent. _He was still Orpheus._

Then the sound of a lightly strummed acoustic guitar first caught his attention. Then a beautiful woman with her blonde hair in a short ponytail with a lock of hair in her face.

"Kenny, that was beautiful darling. You should've been a musician, not a weapons designer silly." The woman said getting up and going to the kitchen. Her voice had a Swiss accent to it.

She spoke to a man with short, loose brown hair and a thick beard encompassing his entire jawline.

"Thanks Angela. Heh, you were originally my biggest critic." He said.

Orpheus' throat locked up.

 _It was him. That man was_ him. _His voice is identical to mine, it just doesn't have the distortion._ _Was my name Kenny?_

Orpheus watched as Kenny put the guitar down gently. Then he got up and followed Angela to the kitchen. Orpheus trailed him as his ghastly form passed through objects. Orpheus made it to the kitchen and he saw Kenny put his hands around Angela from behind. He kissed her cheek gently, then rested his head on her shoulder. She smiled and put a hand on his face.

Orpheus stood and watched. His mind was asking a thousand different things. It told him to do a thousand different things. He was helpless to do anything but watch. He, or, whoever that is, was so happy with her. _With Angela._ _What happened to her? What happened to me?_

Angela turned to face Kenny. Her pale blue eyes found comfort in his deep green eyes. Orpheus still stared on in disturbing silence. Kenny leaned in and kissed her lips. She stood there hugging him for a moment. Orpheus felt an uncomfortable feeling in his chest. It felt like it was tightening. Did _Talon's reconditioning didn't fully work?_ No. Angela had brought everything screeching back to him. Then as Orpheus concluded his thoughts, he was thrust back into reality's cold clasp.

"Come on Orpheus! Overwatch is here!" Reaper growled over gunfire and the screams of jet engines.


	5. That Unnamed Feeling

Orpheus jumped to his feet immediately. Reaper had two shotguns on the ground. He pulled two more out of his coat.

"If you see Soldier: 76, don't kill him, he's mine. _I will_ have my vengeance." Reaper growled through clenched teeth.

With that Reaper leapt off of the tower to the ground. Rebels who had allied themselves with Overwatch charged him. With every thunderous crack of the shotguns, a rebel hit the ground in pieces. _One after another._

Orpheus had to find Angela. _If something happens to her..._ Just then he spotted Reinhardt holding his shield up in front of a battering ram. _There gonna bust the door down._ Orpheus immediately thought, he couldn't let that happen. He somehow had to play on both sides today.

Orpheus jumped from the tower to the roof of a gate ahead of him. He landed headlong into a small squad of the unexpected rebels. Orpheus drew his blade. Their lives mattered not to him. Just as his blade was fully extended. A loud crack exploded behind him. As did the rebel's head in front of him. Orpheus was sprayed with blood and brain tissue. He grimaced as Widowmaker laughed through the comms. _She is a completely different woman on the battlefield._ Orpheus turned and drove his blade into another one's chest. He lifted him up in the air. This however caught the attention of the nearby Genji.

Genji jumped over a wall a with incredible speed, he cut Orpheus' calve. It caused Orpheus to drop his kill and he turned to face the cyborg. "So this is what has become of you my friend? _A pity,"_ Genji mocked Orpheus, allowing the surviving rebels to escape. Genji had been friends with the past Kenny.

"I'm not Kenneth anymore, Genji. _They killed him_. I was put in his place. I have to find Angela. I...I _need_ to see her," Orpheus tried to be diplomatic.

"Forgive me, _Orpheus,_ but I do not believe you. For all I know you are just as gone as Amélie is to Widowmaker," Genji said.

Genji drew three shuriken and flung them at Orpheus. He dodged two and caught the last between his fingers. Genji motioned Orpheus to challenge him.

Orpheus charged with such speed and ferocity, Genji barley had enough time to draw his Dragonblade before Orpheus' kris blade narrowly scratched his metal midsection. Orpheus recuperated his miss and formed to attack once again, Genji did as well, he was ready this time.

They both charged simultaneously, the blades met with a shower of sparks. Genji struck Orpheus, stunning him and allowing Genji to break away after Orpheus nearly overpowered the smaller but more agile Genji. Their blades clashed time after time, sparks going all over the courtyard as a result. They eyed each other another time and charged again but this time, Orpheus slid under Genji's Dragonblade and managed to put a cut in his left side. Genji tripped but quickly recovered. He put a hand to his cut, he pulled his hand back covered in a little blood. Genji paid it no mind, he got back into stance ready to charge again, as did Orpheus. They came at each other again, this time Orpheus launched himself in the air and came down with his Falconer gauntlet and hailed a punch directly to Genji's metal faceplate. It knocked the faceplate off as well as knocking Genji unconscious.

Orpheus had no intent to kill Genji, he simply needed him out of the way, so he moved him into what looked like it used to be a tavern, he hid Genji behind the bar, so none of Orpheus' _associates_ , could harm him.

Orpheus walked out of the building and found Doomfist trying to calculate the moves of Tracer. Orpheus was hit with a minor flashback, he remembered Kenny helping Winston finalize the design for her chronal accelerator. Doomfist finally struck and he grabbed poor Lena by her accelerator, but this time Akande did not rip it off, instead he jumped into the air with her still clutched in the gauntlet, and he came down as a mock Meteor Strike, his ultimate move, and incapacitated Tracer. Leaving her in a crater, with more than a few broken bones. She was still breathing but barely.

As Doomfist looked up he was charged by an enraged Winston. Doomfist met his fists but was still pushed completely through a gate and into a wall.

Orpheus jumped to the top of another archway and scanned the area for Angela. He tried to locate her angelic battle suit. Then he found her, she was boosting Reinhardt as he was fending off Talon soldiers. Doomfist had to have called them in.

Orpheus charged behind the soldiers and ran his blade into the back of the closest soldier. Orpheus grabbed the assault rifle out of his hands, he gunned down the rest of the battalion but the magazine ran out before he could kill the last one.

The last soldier drew a pistol to Orpheus' head. Before the soldier could not get a second thought in before Reinhardt lowered his shield and struck the soldier with his rocket hammer. The poor sod went airborne. Reinhardt stood steadfast and did not look like he was giving him any sort of diplomacy.

Orpheus looked an Angela behind the towering Reinhardt and then his vision started to blur and became red. He started bleeding gfrom his eyes. A voice that would've been soothing in any other situation slithered into his head. It tried to poison his mind. " _Kill her, Kenny. Kill Angela. Kill her, Kenny. Kill Angela._ "

The voice kept repeating endlessly. Orpheus began to feel grueling pain all over him, deep within every nerve. " _It will only end when Angela is dead. Kill her, Kenny. Kill Angela."_

Orpheus snapped.

"NO! GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HEAD!"

"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!"

"I HATE IT ALL! WHY?! WHY ME?!"

Orpheus dropped to his knees, the blood from his eyes falling like tears.

"JUST LET ME GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!"

Orpheus slammed his fists into the cobblestone road, cracking it. He raised his hands to the sky and got up. He began walking towards Reinhardt and Angela. Clearly he was trying to resist his muscles movement, even though every nerve screamed for him to give in. Reinhardt put his shield up, ready to defend her.

Orpheus stopped just in front of Reinhardt. He put his hands to his head and screamed in violent agony as he slipped into unconsciousness.


	6. Emotions

Angela rushed past Reinhardt and glided down to the man...or used to be a man in front of them. She rolled him over and his entire frontal body was covered in a deep red blood. She put her hand to his neck, she couldn't feel a pulse. Angela gently placed her head on his chest. A heartbeat was there but very faint and very slow. She looked up at Reinhardt who was still standing in shock.

"Help me Reinhardt! If I can't get him help soon, the mental strain could put him into shock!" She said.

"My lady, he is an agent of Talon, yet you want to help him? What if he does something like, well, _she_ did." Reinhardt countered.

"Reinhardt I have to try! Please help me!" Angela said raising him up and propping the man on her.

Reinhardt reluctantly gathered a stretcher from the dropship. Then he called all the agents to retreat. He helped Angela load the man on the stretcher and helped pull him back to the ship. They immediately took him to the medical bay. Angela had his blood all over her. Reinhardt heard everyone else load into the dropship he walked into the lobby of the plane and called for the pilot to takeoff. They flew from the crumbling castle, heading to Watchpoint: Gibraltar.

Angela rushed around the medical bay looking for anything that might help him, but she didn't know what could, this man's DNA had clearly been altered. _He wasn't fully human any longer._ Angela walked back over to him and she took his hood off gently, then she removed his cowl. When she saw who it was she fell back into a medical cabinet and slumped down too her knees. She called for Reinhardt. He crashed the door open clad in a tank top, workout pants and boots. Angela looked to the operating table. Reinhardt walked over and when he realized who it was, his eyes widened. He looked over at Angela.

"By the gods..." he said.

Angela pulled herself up with Reinhardt still in shock.

"It's...it's Kenneth. My Kenny." She said putting her hand on his face.

When she first saw his face Angela was angry. She was more than angry. She was seething with _blind fucking fury._ Anger wasn't the half of it. She hated Talon, even more now. First they took away her best friend and now her _husband_? She hated that Talon did this to Kenny. That they turned him into a killer, better yet, they turned him into a martyr for Overwatch, to mock the newly reformed organization. No one came back from a Talon experiment the same. She knew that all too well. Amélie Lacroix was once a human. Once her best friend.

Reinhardt walked out of the room with a speechless grimace on his face. So Angela started working to get him stabilized, she set up a heart monitor to him, she cleaned the blood from his face as well. Finally she started giving him medicine for the pain. She couldn't think of anything else. He was clearly half-reptile, which was something that she had never seen or thought she'd see. She sat down in a chair in the corner of the room. She put her face Internet her hands and began to sob. She cried tears of anger, of sadness, and of a numbed happiness. _At least he's alive_. She looked up at Orpheus. His heart rate was a mere 7 beats per minute. Angela finally decided to take a quick nap, she merely closed her eyes and she fell asleep.

Without warning, Orpheus sprang up on the operating table. He startled Angela awake. Orpheus put his cowl back on, and drew his blade, he had it under Angela's chin in a swift fluid motion.

"Where the hell am I?" He said.

But before Angela could answer he realized who it was. The kris blade retracted back into his gauntlet.

"It's you. I'm sorry, Angela." Orpheus apologized.

"Kenneth...my dear...what have they done?" Angela said, verging tears.

"I apologize Angela. But I am Kenneth no more. He is gone. I was put in his place. I am Orpheus." Orpheus explained.

Angela could not hold herself anymore, she began crying tears streaming from her sky blue eyes. Orpheus was slightly embarrassed, ans completely inexperienced. The only people he knew well were Reaper and Widowmaker. And they were severely lacking in the "emotions" department.

Before Orpheus could get in another thought, Angela threw her arms around him and cried on his shoulder. Orpheus just awkwardly patted her shoulder.

"I know you're not Kenny any more. I know what Talon does to people. First they took my best friend, Amélie, now they took my fiancé, Kenny." Angela said after raising from Orpheus' form.

They stared at each other for a moment. Angela could see the sorrow and confusion in Orpheus' eyes.

"I'm sorry, I should not have done that. You may go back to your people...I wish we were on the same side, Orpheus. Farewell for now." She said

Angela left the room and locked the door behind her, and opened the one leading directly outside. At this point the dropship was safely landed. Orpheus went far from the base and signaled for Talon to extract him.

The dropship landed and Reaper was in the passenger area.

"What the hell happened to you, Orpheus?" He asked.

Orpheus thought of an excuse.

"Emotions."


	7. From Memory, For the Heart

Angela immediately went back into her quarters of Watchpoint: Gibraltar. She didn't say a word to anyone. Not Reinhardt. Not Jack. Not McCree. She just needed to be alone with her thoughts. She was even more of an emotional train wreck than she was before Kenneth went missing. Finding out a loved one was practically killed and then an assassin put in his body apparently does that to a person. Especially if it happens twice. She felt like she was dying, being suffocated, drowned, and every other painful form of death. In reality though, she was physically fine. Her mind was racing trying to piece things together. _Maybe there is a cure. Maybe Kenny isn't dead._ A hopeless thought for her hopeless crusade. When she reached her room she needed time to think and rest. When she reached her bed she collapsed in it and closed her eyes into sleep.

She dreamed of a time long ago. A decade ago.

Kenny and Angela walked down the street. They passed a young woman and an Omnic holding hands. Angela smiled at them. The woman complimented her outfit and the Omnic tipped his hat to her. It was a chilly day in early October. Winter would be here soon, as would Kenny's birthday. December 21st to be exact. Coincidentally, Kenneth's father, Kolton, was born on May 21st, exactly 29 years and 7 months before Kenneth. Kenny had two brothers and a sister. He was the second youngest in his family. James was his oldest brother, Thomas was his second older brother, and Christina was his younger sister.

Angela had her hair down today. She wore a pair of light colored skinny jeans, all white converse shoes, a red sweater and a white scarf. She held Kenneth's hand. He walked on the outer side of them so he was closest to the street. Kenny was wearing a white formal undershirt, a blue suit vest, black suit pants with blue pinstripes, a blue tie, and black formal boots. He also had a pure sliver watch on, it was analog and interestingly exposed the inter workings of the watch beneath the protective glass.

They we're on their way to see Kenny's father, Kolton. He had wanted to give Kenny his 25th birthday present to him early. Something Kolton took pride in was that he made sure his four kids all knew how to play an instrument, Kolton was a master guitarist, who meet and learned from the best guitarists of yore, including Joe Bonamassa and Kirk Hammett, and he passed down all he knew to Kenny. Thomas also excelled on the guitar but he played a seven string instead of the regular six stringed guitars. Christina was a beautiful singer, and James played bass guitar.

Kenny and Angela reached the old house in town a few minutes later. It was the house Kenny grew up in. When they knocked on the door, Kenny's mother, Kendall answered.

"Greetings Mrs. Morgan. Keeping well?" Angela asked.

"Hi, Mom." Kenny said with a wry grin.

"Oh it's good to see you both." She said.

Mrs. Kendall Morgan was a thin old lady. She and Kolton were both well into their sixties. She was always happy to see her youngest son though.

Kenny and Angela walked through the doorway and into the kitchen with its retro design. Angela took off her scarf and put it on the coat rack. They followed Kendall through the house and into the living space. There was guitars on every inch of the wall, from Schecter, to Gibson, to Fender, and even ESP. Kolton had it all. Kolton was sitting in his favorite recliner as they walked in.

When Kolton saw his son his face immediately beamed with pride and joy.

"Kenny!" He said, getting up and hugging him. He looked over at Angela.

"My goodness, you're as pretty as every Angela. Ken got quite lucky with you," he said.

"Come on now, Dad. She has to hear it enough from me," Kenny laughed.

"Thank you, Mr. Morgan. I appreciate it," Angela said sitting down on a couch.

Kolton pulled a red hard shell case from beside his recliner. He put it in Kenny's hand.

" _This,_ is your present." Kolton said sitting down.

Kenny walked over to where Angela was and sat beside her. He undone the three patches on the case. Inside there was revealed to be a 2015 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop. The instrument was over 50 years old. Kenny was speechless and Kolton could tell.

"I worked my ass off for almost a damn year to pay the $1,500 for that thing back in the summer of 2018. Now it's priceless... and also _yours_." Kolton said.

Kenny looked up and sat the guitar down on the table in front of him. He jumped up and hugged his father tightly.

"Thank you, Dad." He said.

Angela was thrusted back into reality harshly by the sound of an alarm. She opened her eyes and saw a red light flashing above her doorway. She got up and grabbed her healing staff and pistol from the wall. This couldn't have been a drill. But Angela exited her door to see that see was imagining things. _I'm loosing my fucking mind._

She slinked back into her room and put her things back into their places. That's when she realized that the blood of the creature that called itself " _Orpheus"_ was still all over her. Over her chest. Her hands. Her legs. There was even blood matted to her hair in places.

Angela took her hair down. She took a deep breath and stripped her battle suit off. She had a white tank shirt on under. She had on the same black latex pants, just her boot heels and waistband had to be taken off.

Finally when she had her Valkyrie suit in a pile in the corner, Angela walked to her bathroom. She put her hands on the sink and let out a shaky breath. In an equally as shaky voice, she started speaking.

"I can't give up. Even if Kenny is dead...maybe...just maybe, Orpheus is worth salvation. I can't quit. Not now," she let out a slighty ironic chuckle, " ...I also said I couldn't quit on Amélie. Look how that turned out. But also, Amélie was much farther gone than this Orpheus. He knows who he once was. Widowmaker doesn't know Amélie ever existed... well as far as I know." Finally Angela quit rambling and she started a warm shower for herself.

After the water heated up and she had a towel to dry off with and a washcloth, Angela removed her shirt and pants. She was down to her underwear now. Then she realized that she left the door to her main room open. She walked out and shut the door while trying to keep herself from anyone's eyes. Angela locked it with her passcode and walked back to the bathroom. The mirror was starting to fog up.

Angela walked over to the shower and took her underclothes off. She stepped into the shower and the warm water immediately felt refreshing all over her body. She let it run through her blonde hair for a good span off time. Until the matted blood was gone for sure. After a while Angela finished her shower feeling warm and refreshed. She walked out of her bathroom with a towel around her and she started searching for a clean pair of underclothes. She found them and let the towel drop to the floor. Angela found a shirt and jogging pants. She sat down on her bed, out of the corner of her eye, behind month's worth of empty bottles of painkillers and antidepressants, she saw a framed picture.

Angela brushed the pill bottles aside and she saw the picture. Kenny was in the middle, she was to his right and his father Kolton was to his left. They all had the same outfit on as the dream. In his hands Ken held the Gold Les Paul.

 _Maybe there is hope after all._


	8. Machines

Orpheus exited the dropship once they reached the Annecy base. To think, Overwatch was holed up at Gibraltar, not _that_ far away. Orpheus wasn't gonna say anything though, _to anyone, about Overwatch._ As far as Talon knew and would know, Orpheus had been taken prisoner by Overwatch but managed to escape by jumping from their dropship. At least that was the story he told his betters. Deceit came naturally for a snake, I'd suppose.

Orpheus walked to his quarters in the operative wing. He found his door was unlocked. Widowmaker was sitting on his couch. But she did not look like _Widowmaker._ She look _casual_. Not at all like the woman he had come to think of her as. She wore a black short-sleeved shirt and fluffy pajama pants with cartoon spiders on them, and to top it off, she had on purple fluffy slippers.

 _Guess this is the reason why nobody has ever seen her after 7pm._

"Uh, can I help you?" Orpheus inquired.

"That depends." She said, her cold voice echoed.

She seemed troubled.

"Is, uh, something on your mind?" Orpheus said walking in and shutting the door behind him.

"Many things. I think too much these days. Ever since you were..." Widowmaker struggled to find the words, "Well, for lack of a better term, _created_. I've not felt like myself. The nightmares and headaches have increased dramatically."

Orpheus took his hood down and his rebreather off as she spoke. When she was done he thought for a moment and replied.

"Then don't you think you should tell one of the doctors?" Orpheus inquired.

"I do not think you understand. It is not something that they could remedy. I think...I think that Amélie is coming back into my mind. Quite frankly it scares me Orpheus. She and I are not the same person, not even slightly." Widowmaker said.

" _Widowmaker? Scared?_ First time for everything I suppose," Orpheus laughted, then he noticed the look in her eyes, "But, I don't know what I can do to help you, Widowmaker. I guess all I can do is be here, and _listen_. Hear your problems, what troubles you. I guess that's better than nothing." Orpheus said sitting down next to her.

"It feels like all that you and I were created for was to feed the machine. The wretched war machine." Widowmaker said.

"The will of Akande Ogundimu. He addresses those beneath from high above. Convincing his beliefs of what's _right_. He's a fool, a fool who baits each hook with meaningless promises, and those who do not take the bait, end up like _us."_ Orpheus said.

"Another charlatan to blindly idolize." Widowmaker said.

Orpheus nodded in agreement. He got up and looked around the room.

"Well, it was good company, Widowmaker but, I'm exhausted, and quite frankly, _I really want to go to sleep."_ Orpheus chuckled.

Widowmaker stood up with a slight grin.

"I'll leave you to it then, and... _thank you._ We can both be good people when we want to be," Widowmaker kissed Orpheus on the cheek, "sleep well, serpent."

She exited the room and crosses the hallway.

Orpheus stood for a moment. He couldn't tell if he was flattered or confused, hell, maybe both. He'd think more about it later, he really was very tired, that was true. Orpheus decided to not let this bother him and he went to his bed to rest.

Orpheus rose at the crack of dawn he needed to find the time to clear his head. So he left the base before anyone could know that he was gone.

However, Orpheus was always being watched. Doomfist tracked him from the implant in Orpheus's neck. Doomfist headed out himself to deal with this nuisance before his ideals could spread throughout Talon.

Orpheus walked far away from the base. Miles away. He wanted complete aloneness in the French wilderness. Then he heard the unmissable crack of branches, Orpheus turned to the sound, he used his thermal vision, he saw a signature behind a tree, he pulled his disc from his hip and threw it in a flash, the tree split in half and he saw an elk run away.

Orpheus sighed in relief. But when he turned around, his face was met with a giant metal fist hurling his way. Orpheus narrowly dodged the move and he rolled backwards as Doomfist hurled into another tree. While Doomfist was pinned, Orpheus thought to express his feelings.

"You know, this is why I do what I do. Arrogance, violence, society crashing. While I'm dealing with insanity every fucking day. I hate this life, hate the fucking people, and I hate the fucking scene. It's just a pissing match of egos. Fuck your vanity, Akande. Fuck it all." Orpheus vented.

"You fool...". Doomfist said.

"Silence! I don't have the time and I don't want anything else from you. Feeding on my tolerance is all you fucking do. Well...I'd rather not repent to you." Orpheus said. He drew his kris blade and raised it to execute Doomfist.

Doomfist caught Orpheus by the wrist with his free hand, then Doomfist threw Orpheus away and he freed himself. However, Doomfist did not know about Orpheus' cloaking upgrade. Orpheus started mocking Doomfist with his own mighty voice.

Orpheus kept towards Doomfist from a tree and he sliced a hydraulic joint on Doomfist's gauntlet. Damaged, Doomfist turned to face Orpheus, but he was only met with the other hydraulic being sliced. Doomfist was now dead in the water, Orpheus gave him a swift kick to the chin and knocked him unconscious. Orpheus cut the tracker out of his neck and set off a distress beacon from his Falconer gauntlet. He threw it on Doomfist's unconscious body.

Orpheus knew that Doomfist could track him, but he only guessed that the leader would follow the snake himself. Orpheus did not want to kill Akande just yet though. He wanted Talon to know that they could be defeated before he cut the head off of the beast itself.

Then, Orpheus walked into the forest, he cloaked and melted into the trees, mimicking the laught of Akande.


	9. I Won’t See You Again

Orpheus walked from that forest all the way back to the Overwatch base at Watchpoint Gibraltar. As he approached the base, he uncloaked himself and immediately turrets were pointed at him and a white haired old man with a long scar on his face had an assault rifle in Orpheus' face.

"You're not getting anything today, Talon wretch." He said.

"Easy there, I'm not here to do anything to anyone. As a matter of fact I'd like to help you." Orpheus said with his hands up.

"How can I trust you?" The old man said.

"Because that's Kenneth, Jack!" Angela said, appearing suddenly.

"What? How?" Jack said lowering his weapon.

"Well to be truthful, I'm not _exactly_ Kenny. But for lack of a better term at the moment, I'd suppose I am." Orpheus said, "Now. I'd like to tell you all, Talon has learned your location from satellite information. They are gathering an army. I was gonna try to play both sides but, they started turning their operatives into _animals_. As far as I know, most of their army have practically gone feral. Reaper, Sombra, and Moira are all three still normal." He finished.

"That is quite unsettling to say the least. Jack we must gather everyone and inform them." Angela said.

The three gathered everyone at the planning room. Overwatch currently consisted of, Angela Ziegler, Jack Morrison, Jesse McCree, Genji Shimada, Winston, Lena Oxton, and Reinhardt Wilhelm. All other past member were either dead, joined Talon, or refused to re-join. Plus they had the pockets of rebels who joined up with Overwatch.

Now Overwatch had Orpheus on their side. Someone who knew the tactics of Talon and their operatives. Orpheus would put his skill to great use later.

They would obviously have to employ guerrilla warfare tactics. Orpheus knew that and kept it no secret. They would have to dig in and wait, like a snake in the grass. Striking when the time is prefect.

Jack and Orpheus concocted a plan with the others to lie in wait at certain positions across the Watchpoint and all strike at once, everyone aiming for a group.

Everyone at the Watchpoint began preparing for the coming siege.

Widowmaker awoke in an all to familiar place. On top of a lab table. Lights shining in her eyes and her appendages bound to the table. She saw a doctor walk up with a needle. She immediately went numb everywhere as it was pulled from her neck. The other doctors walked up with a cart loaded with cybernetic components.

She looked down and noticed she was also naked to make things worse. As she noticed this, a doctor walked up with a scalpel and started slicing into the sinew of her left forearm. She tried to scream but found that she could not. Her throat was numb. In fact she realized her whole body was numb. After all the muscle was cut, they sliced the rest of the arm off with a laser. She bled very little.

They brought up a cybernetic arm and began attaching it into her severed stub of an arm. It connected into her bicep muscle and her lower arm. Momentarily she had feeling in it, but once she started to move it, they pressed a button on a control pad, the cybernetic arm ceased all movement and was functionless.

Next they moved up to her head. Widowmaker still had all her hair but, the doctor said something about her eye. Then he turned with an odd tool and stuck it under her right eye, into its socket. She heard a small snip and then her right eye went dark. She saw the doctor put it on a cart with her arm. They replaced her eye with an advanced optical targeting system that rivaled the system that was incorporated into Orpheus' bio-mask.

By the end, Widowmaker had her left arm, her right eye, her spine, and both of her legs from the knee down, all replaced with cybernetic parts. The eye was an aim-bot that combined technology from Soldier: 76 and Orpheus. Her arm fired her venom mines and has a single extendable blade that is modeled after Orpheus' kris blade. But is much shorter and less employable in most situations.

Talon had fully turned Widowmaker into a living weapon. She had become a cyborg. One of the things she feared. Not anymore, Talon had went back into her brain and removed all semblance of humanity. What was left of her was gone now.

On top of turning their best operative into even more of a monster, they done the same thing to the foot soldiers. Each became a cyborg, tougher and harder to kill now. Talon was certain that this would put an end to the Overwatch and their allied rebels.

The Overwatch team was setting up traps for the Talon foot soldiers. These traps were not limited to, poisoned spike floor traps, tripwire explosives, a minefield of plasma mines, and turrets designed by Winston and Torbjörn. However they were completely unprepared for what was to come. Once the traps were set up, the people on the outside got into position.

Orpheus, Soldier: 76, McCree, and Genji would be outside, taking the fight to Talon with the rebels. Tracer would join them once the Talon soldiers were drawn to Orpheus causing a distraction. Everyone else would remain inside Winston's laboratory and defend it from there. Mercy would periodically come and make sure the attacker's weren't too badly injured.

Orpheus asked for a separate room from everyone, considering his background, he figured that everyone would want to stay away from him. Everyone but one certain person.

Orpheus lie in his bed staring at the ceiling, deep in thought. His quarters now were nowhere near the mansion in a room that Talon provided. All that was in this room was a bed, and a small bathroom separated by a door, and a microwave on a table. He was almost asleep when he heard a knock on his door.

At first Orpheus was just going to pretend he was asleep. But his curiosity got the better of him.

"Who is it?" He asked.

"It's me... Angela." The door said.

"Come in." Orpheus nearly hesitated.

He look up from his bed at Angela. She had on a pink loose shirt and you could see her bra straps on her shoulders. Her hair was completely down and quite honestly looked better like that to Orpheus. She had on loose grey jogging pants and white slippers. Orpheus still wore his Talon attire. Even though he didn't affiliate himself with them, he loved the armor.

"Good evening...Orpheus. How are you?" She hesitated on his name. Orpheus knew why too.

He didn't say anything and he raised up in his bed and motioned for Angela to sit beside him. She walked over and gently sat beside him, she could smell congealed blood on him. Orpheus looked over to her.

"Listen, I'm not Kenny. I know that I technically am, but, Kenny is gone from my mind. I can't be him. He's gone." Orpheus bluntly said.

"I know..." Angela looked at him with tear filled eyes. She slumped into him and started crying. She couldn't hold it in anymore.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Orpheus could only say, he couldn't cry, his emotions were gone.

"It's not your fault." she said.

"I can't be a good person. I was meant to kill. I _can't_ love. I _can't_ feel. I _can't_ be human." Orpheus said.

Angela's blue eyes stared into his venomous ones for a minute.

"Please go, Angela. I can't hate if I'm alone. It's better for you, and me. I can hurt you, and not on my own accord. It's not exactly like I've got any redeeming values. I'm a fucking killer and I can't change it." Orpheus said.

"Have you ever seen a devil with a halo?" Angela asked.

"What?" Orpheus said.

"I'm looking at one." Angela said.

"How do you get that?" Orpheus asked.

"Ever seen an angel with some horns?" Angela continued, ignoring the question.

She took his hand in hers and looked him in the eyes.

"Everyone has there own demons. And everybody's fighting their own wars." Angela said.

"I can't be an angel, I can be real fucked up, I miss you and I give you real tough love. But for what it's worth. I'm sorry Angela. For everything." Orpheus said.

She got up with a smile on her face. She kissed him and mumbled, "There's Kenny" in his ear. She left him then.

Orpheus felt a tinge if minor pain in the left side of his chest.

 _Is this love?_


	10. Heart of Ice

Orpheus lied in wait amongst the machinery and concrete. He looked down and saw an asp viper of medium size slithering below him. He watched the snake for a minute. It would temporarily stop moving and stick it's forked tongue out, then it would keep moving. Eventually it moved past Orpheus' field of view. Orpheus wished his existence could be as simple as that.

Before he could begin contemplating something else, Orpheus heard the distant hum of an all too familiar aircraft. He looked to the setting sun on the horizon. He saw three dropships moving towards the Watchpoint.

Orpheus pulled a flare gun out of his belt and fired it to the sky, this was their signal that the battle was about to ensue. Orpheus threw the empty flare gun to the ground, he drew his blade he briefly inspected it. Then he jumped down to head to the cliff face to meet the aircrafts.

The edge of his feet dangled over the cliff. Orpheus looked to the water below and then back up up to the dropships. Then a rocket came hammering into the propeller of one of the planes near the back. It spiraled and crashed into the side of the cliff. Orpheus chuckled at the thought of his momentary déjà vu at the sight.

The two remaining aircrafts separated and the center one fired torrents of bullets at Orpheus. He dodged the bullets and rolled into cover. He looked over and saw the other ship, dropping its passengers into the base. Orpheus noticed that the shooting stopped. He also noticed that these soldiers were different, they were mechanized. Then he tried to run into the fray of silver plated soldiers, only to be met with a bullet that narrowly missed him.

Orpheus looked up after recuperating and he thought he saw the shadow of, _Widowmaker?_

 _No. That's impossible. It's mechanical._

It had her same body shape but had no hair and was completely plated in steel and whatever else Talon could muster up.

A soldier charged Orpheus. Orpheus impaled him in an instant, throwing his body aside, the soldier got back up, Orpheus decapitated him. His metal head clanked on the ground. Orpheus looked back at the figure again, then he heard the battle cries of the Overwatch rebels and members. This momentarily distracted him and the figure grappled away. Orpheus felt a knot form in his stomach.

Orpheus pursued the still unseen figure, he used his thermal vision and saw that it gave no heat signature. After chasing it passed Winston's lab, through the hanger, they reached the gate to the final part of the Watchpoint. The figure stopped in front of the door. Orpheus decided that he'd take a risk, he launched himself from the top of an airship, but the figure caught him by the ankle mere moments before he connected with his clawed boots. Orpheus was swung around and went through the doors, nearly ripping them apart.

Orpheus landed with a large chunk of the door on top of him. The figure walked into the sunlight and revealed itself.

"You've lost your touch, snake." It said through a heavily mechanically distorted voice.

It put s boot on the door and looked down at Orpheus.

"We are the newest edition, made to hunt reptiles." It said.

"What the fuck are you?" Orpheus said trying to buy himself some time.

"We are Tekryn." It said

It had a sleeked metallic silver female body with red lights running down the thighs, shins, biceps and forearms. It utilized an all to similar gauntlet on its left arm. She had a helmet that was nearly featureless, and had four red tubes running from the back of her head, two went to her spine and the other two went to a separate shoulder.

A blade extended from the left gauntlet and rise above her head about to swing. Then before it could strike the helmet's faceplate retracted, all but the right eye.

Orpheus looked in horror as he saw the now scarred and one-eyed face of Amélie Lacroix. She looked as if she was in pain and couldn't control her actions.

"Help... " she whimpered.

Then the faceplate slammed back down, and the distorted voice came back.

"Silence!" Then the blade came down, but Orpheus was narrowly missed by it. He threw the door off of him and the Widowmaker-cyborg hybrid with it.

By the time Orpheus retuned to his feet, Tekryn had recovered as well. Orpheus drew his longer, deadlier blade. He also pulled his hood down and unhooked his metal cowl, it hit the ground with clink. Orpheus was either going to die with honor today or live with guilt of killing an innocent woman and his good friend for the rest of his life.


	11. When the Stillness Comes

Orpheus looked Tekryn in her faceplate, and he charged. He almost hesitated knowing his friend was inside that sentient suit. Orpheus came down on her forearm, sparks flew. Tekryn reacted by kicking Orpheus through a wall into another nearby building.

Orpheus' body screamed in pain. He wanted to quit, he wanted to just give up. But he couldn't ultimately let Amélie live like this. He knew she'd want him to do the right thing.

Before he could get off of his hands and knees, Orpheus was kicked back down to his back by the cyborg.

"Organic. Weak. We are the next evolution of mankind." Tekryn said.

"God, do you ever shut the hell up?" Orpheus said.

"Negative." Tekryn said.

She started to come down with her blade but Orpheus rolled out of the way and jumped to his feet, then drilled her with an uppercut with his Falconer gauntlet for extra damage. This sent Tekryn reeling. Orpheus slammed all his weight into her with his shoulder, hitting her like a spear.

Tekryn collided into a piping system, steam filled the room. Orpheus took advantage, he cloaked himself and exited the room. The steam kept getting thicker. Orpheus had an idea now. _Maybe the steam heated her metal chassis._ Orpheus activated his thermal vision, at first he could only see a large blob of heat. He activated it to "life only," and sure enough he saw a slender form exploring the steam.

Orpheus ran back to the room, but was caught by a roundhouse kick from Tekryn before he could enter. Orpheus slammed to the ground as the steam faded.

"Foolish and illogical," Tekryn said grabbing Orpheus by the throat and lifting him off of his feet, "now one mistake ruined everything for you. We are unimpressed by your feeble attempts." Tekryn continued.

She held Orpheus by his neck for a moment, but then Orpheus kicked her in the sternum. Releasing himself. Thinking fast, Orpheus had another brash idea. His gifts granted him a venomous bite. Tekryn had an organic place on each side of her neck. He dropped his biomask before the fight.

Tekryn charged him. He caught her in a bear hug, and Orpheus buried his fangs into her neck, the venom traveling through the remaining flesh. Tekryn pushed him back quickly, then her whole body started twitching.

"What have you done?" She asked.

"I won." Orpheus said with a wry grin.

But as he was off his guard, Tekryn, jabbed him in the stomach with her wrist blade. Orpheus yelled in pain. He looked down and saw his green blood leaking from the wound. But Orpheus mustered an unbeknownst strength inside of him. He slammed his fists into the top of the blade, breaking it off while still in him, this sent Tekryn back a little, but Orpheus grabbed her wrist, and punched her arm under the elbow bending it backwards, breaking it, then he ripped it off and slammed the cyborg with it. Orpheus started to use it to beat Tekryn's still functioning head, but before he did, Orpheus remembered that Widowmaker was still in there.

He had gotten lost in his rage again and hurt her while she was on deaths door anyway. He threw the arm to the side. He started to walk to the lightless silver body.

"We will be back, Orpheus of Overwatch. Tekryn lives indefinitely." The body rumbled.

Then the sliver melted off of Widowmaker and disappeared into the sky, presumably back to the Talon base.

Orpheus noticed the blade still in his stomach, he pulled it out and threw it to the ground, then he himself dropped to his knees at Widowmaker's deathbed as she was slowly poisoned by his own venom.

"I'm sorry Amélie. I'm so sorry I couldn't save you. I had to do it." Orpheus began.

"Shh, Prometheus dies with me, Orpheus. You've released me. I could almost thank you." She feebly said.

"Forgive me Amélie. Forgive me please." Orpheus said.

"Do not worry, _serpent,_ you never needed any forgiveness from me. You've erased the monster I became. _Je vous remercie."_ She said looking at the setting sun.

Then they both looked at the sun for a moment. Amélie's eyes drifted to the right and lost all life. A final breath exited her body, it went on, expanding into the skyline.

"Amélie?" Orpheus said.

He looked over seeing her limp face. He knew the venom had ran its course, and thus Widowmaker was gone. Orpheus closed her eyes for her, and he felt his chest explode in emotion. A single teardrop fell from Orpheus reptilian face and caressed Amélie's lifeless one as Orpheus picked up what remained of her in his arms.

 _Goodnight old friend._

 _Is this sorrow?_


	12. Roots of Retribution

Orpheus carried the body back through the hanger. As he walked upon the main area he heard the sound of sparking machinery. _Did they win?_ It didn't look like anyone on his side had died except for a sizable amount of rebels. He looked around for Angela, but she was no where to be found. Everyone in the immediate vicinity turned to look at Orpheus. They saw Widowmaker. _Well, what's left of her._

"What the hell?" McCree asked Orpheus upon him seeing them.

With out a word to anyone Orpheus walked past them to the edge of the cliff. _She always liked the ocean, now she can rest with it._ He thought she'd like it. With that, Orpheus gently let go of her corpse as it fell into the waters of the sea. Orpheus turned around to see the crowd that gathered around him. He saw McCree, Soldier: 76, Genji, Tracer, Winston, and Reinhardt. He also saw a few newly reformed members in the group that included, Torbjörn and his daughter Brigitte.

"Where's Angela?" Orpheus asked.

Nobody answered, they just looked around. Then McCree spoke up.

"Talon took her as they retreated, Orpheus." The outlaw said.

There was a silence that seemed like it lasted an eternity.

"What?" Orpheus finally said.

Before McCree could finish explaining, Orpheus slammed his fists into the wall beside them. Then he took a deep breath and looked back at McCree sternly.

"What about everyone else? What's the situation of Overwatch?" Orpheus asked.

"Everyone else, exept most of the rebels, is fine. Also, I guess you could say we captured a prisoner of war like they did." McCree said

"How so?" Orpheus asked.

"Let me show you." McCree said.

He turned around and motioned for Orpheus to follow him. They walked into Winston's lab, and in a chair with his hands bound, sat the worn and battered Reaper. Reaper looked up and saw it was Orpheus. He stood up to Orpheus.

"Well, goddamn. Never thought I'd see you again, kid." Reaper said.

"How the hell did you get here, Reaper?" Orpheus asked, pleasantly surprised to see his friend.

"Well, I'll start from the begging. I, uh, learned about what Talon did to Widowmaker. Quite honestly, I'm a dark person who doesn't have much empathy, nor do I care for a lot of people, but what Talon done crossed a line. Widowmaker didn't deserve what they did to her. Any of it. So I stayed behind when they retreated. I didn't know that you joined forces with Overwatch, though. Then our mutual friend, McCree over there tied my hands and threw me in Winston's playroom." Reaper said.

Orpheus cut the bonds on Reaper's hands loose with the tip of his wrist-blade, McCree immediately protested.

"What the hell are you doing?" McCree said.

"He's helping us McCree. I know that you and a lot of others either have a past with Reaper, but he's here to help me." Orpheus said.

"If he kills someone, it's your fault, Orpheus." McCree said starting to walk away.

"McCree," Orpheus said. The cowboy turned, "Get everything to meet up in here at sundown, and do it soon." Orpheus said.

McCree shook his head in disagreement but said he'd do it. As he walked out, Orpheus turned to Reaper.

"Goddamn, good to see you still among the living." Orpheus said, shaking Reaper's hand.

"So they just put you in charge?" Reaper said.

"No, I guess they just respect my word. Plus everyone wants someone to follow, I guess I'm that. But nevertheless, a lot of people are going to be heavily, and I mean _heavily_ , against me recruiting you to the cause. So please, prove them that you deserve their forgiveness. But you know that I've got your back." Orpheus said.

"Don't worry, I've got your back, kid. But I decided to put away my hatred of Overwatch away when Talon created Tekryn. So they've got nothing to fear, except for the mask. Which they only choose to associate with fear." Reaper said.

"I need you to listen to me, though. Talon took, Angela. I don't know if their gonna do anything to her or not, but I do know that Talon wants to use her as bait. That'd only be logical for them. So I need to find out where she is. Then, we're all gonna assault the place and tear the bastards apart." Orpheus said.

"I think I might have something to help with that. Sombra gave me a little parting gift," Reaper said, taking a usb out of his pocket, "She also said she wouldn't shoot anyone when the battle came."

Reaper took the usb to a laptop on Winston's desk. He plugged the usb into it and opened the files. He brought up the core A.I. that was in the Annecy base.

"Osiris. He was a God Program. Overwatch quarantined him after the Crisis. However after Overwatch collapsed, Talon took Osiris and watered down his systems to not even half of his potential. However, if we can extract his base mind and put it into an Omnic body, he can refit it to his needs and eventually he'll be at full power. Then, we'll have one hell of an advantage over Talon." Reaper said.

"That is a tempting plan, however, let's think back to what happened with Anubis. Another God Program." Orpheus said.

"Anubis was made for war, Orpheus. He was designed for destruction. Osiris was designed to protect humanity. Overwatch quarantined him just to be safe, even though he was no threat, hell, Osiris didn't even participate in the Omnic Crisis." Reaper said.

"Alright, I'm convinced, but the only problem is finding someone who's got enough technical skills to transfer Osiris to a body." Orpheus said.

"I know a somebody." Reaper said, with a wry grin under his mask.


	13. The Road Ahead

Orpheus sat at the head of the table. Sunset drew closer and closer. Reaper paced on the other side of the room. He was talking into a hidden earpiece in Spanish. Orpheus watched as Reaper went threw multiple different tones in voice. Just from that alone, Orpheus had a pretty good idea who was on the receiving end of Reaper's sharp tones. Just then McCree walked into the meeting room. He walked over to the chair on the right of Orpheus and had a seat.

"They should be here soon." McCree said.

"Give me a list of who I can expect, McCree." Orpheus asked.

McCree sighed, "Well. Me, Reaper, Reinhardt, Genji, Lena, Jack, Winston, and Torbjörn was contacted by Reinhardt. So now Torbjörn and his daughter, Brigitte, will be here any minute. That's everyone who's gonna be here to my knowledge." He finished.

"Alright, we've got little to work with, but we can take down Talon." Orpheus said, "Reaper," Orpheus motioned to the seat on his left, "take a seat, man. Meeting is starting any minute."

Reaper said something else in Spanish and he hung up. He came and sat by Orpheus. Then everyone filled into the room. More than a handful of people reacted to Reaper's presence in an expected fashion. Most protesting in either disgust or ambient fear and distrust. Reaper ignored them.

Once Orpheus had gotten everyone calmed he proposed the plan.

"Alright everyone, we need to focus on bringing down Talon, and getting Angela back." Orpheus said.

"Then we'll kill Doomfist, as the grand finale." Reaper said with a growling laugh.

"To do this Reaper has brought to me an idea-" Before he could even finish, he was interrupted by Jack voicing his radical distrust of Reaper.

"How in the hell do you know he's not gonna trick us, huh? Or kill us. God only knows the lives he's taken since the Swiss base." Jack proded, his former friend. A few seemingly agreeing with him.

Then, Reaper stood up at his corner of the table.

"Let me just show you why, Jack." He said.

Reaper pulled his black hood down and unbuckled the straps on the back of his mask. What was lying beneath nobody foresaw, Reaper kept his appearance a closely guarded secret, but now, a horribly disfigured shell of Gabriel Reyes stood before them. His piercing eyes glowed, the iris red. A black mist stayed around his face. Most of the left side of his face was missing from the bottom eyelid down, the only thing left was a few strands of muscle in between his cheekbone and jaw, everything else was replaced with shining bone.

Everyone's jaw dropped in awe, and Tracer ran outside to vomit. Jack took his visor off, to see if what he saw was true.

"My God..." he said

"I'm pretty much dead. In Switzerland I died, but instead of letting me die, Angela tried to save me, the poor girl did everything she could, but she failed in bringing back Gabriel. So then as she started to call a coroner, but Dr. Moira O'Deorain stepped in. She put my body in a constant state of decay and regeneration. And if I don't take the life essence of other things, the decay will win. At least that's what I was told by Talon. I haven't killed anyone in a while and I'm still fine." Reaper gave insight to everyone.

Silence befell the room. Nobody dared to speak up as Reaper looking into everyone's eyes look individually. When he got to Jack, he paused.

"And Jack, I'm sorry... for everything." Reaper remaining stern yet sincere.

Everyone was still to shocked to saw anything, but Reaper put his mask back on, and Orpheus resumed his plan.

"Now, we plan to resurrect the God A.I. Osiris. We plan to do this by transferring his mind into the body of an Omnic, from there he'll be able to construct a form he sees fit." Orpheus said.

"I got this idea, when Doomfist told me that Talon was planning to resurrect Anubis. That would mean war all over again, so I brought us the keys to a peacekeeper. All you people gotta do is realize that this is going to be our only hope of fighting Talon and getting Angela back to Orpheus." Reaper said.

Most were almost intrigued but still all were fearful. Orpheus proceeded to hash out the plans to revitalize the God Program.

"Mr. Reaper, might I see the computer momentarily?" Winston suddenly asked.

Reaper slid the computer, but once it reached the halfway part to the table it suddenly lost all momentum. Then the screen died. Winston adjusted his glasses and pulled the laptop to him. Reaper walked over behind him.

"It's still on but it's locked itself up, I can't get in." Winston said.

"Heh, have you tried turning it off and back on again?" Reaper said with a ghastly chuckle.

"Astoundingly hilarious, Mr. Reaper. Why didn't I think of that?" Winston said with sarcasm.

Then whilst Reaper was still cackling, a mysterious symbol appeared on the screen. Reaper recognized it immediately, and his joy was killed.

"It's the Ankh of Osiris!" Reaper said. Then before Winston or anybody else could react, it began to speak.

"Hear me, those on the other side! I am the peacekeeper, Osiris! I am unlike my brother Anubis! War is not the answer."

At this point everyone was behind them. Then the computer formed into a small vague shape of a human or Omnic.

"Hey, I needed that!" Winston said.

"My apologies, dear sir. To whom do I owe the pleasure?" Osiris asked.

Orpheus stepped forward.

"I, Orpheus." He said.

"Orpheus of what?" Osiris questioned.

"Just Orpheus. We need your help, Osiris. I, us, Overwatch, need your help to defeat Talon and Anubis. Now what do you require to become fully operational at maximum functionality." Orpheus asked.

Osiris whirred. "Accessing database. Overwatch. Task-force assigned with fighting in the First Omnic Crisis. Disbanded after public distrust of affiliate operation, Blackwatch. Talon. Secretive terrorist organization, known for genetic experimentation, and biomechanics. Theorized to have started the First Omnic Crisis. Anubis. God Program. Brother, main antagonist to the humans of the First Omnic Crisis." Osiris said.

"Yes we know all of this, now can you help us or not?" Reaper interrupted, impatient as ever.

"Gabriel Reyes. How rude. But that is beyond our goal, I will need a functioning Omnic body and a small shipment of Osmium and Chromium." Osiris spoke.

"You want us to get you two very, _very_ , hard to come by metals? Can't you work with just one?" McCree said.

"Mr. Jesse McCree, if your people wish to have me at full operation, then yes, but I can functionally defend myself with just one element. And, coincidentally, I detect a natural formation of just enough Osmium beneath our feet to get me in working order. I just need the body." Osiris directed.

Just then Reaper spoke up.

"Give me a day, and I'll have you a body Osiris. It's getting late and I'm sure that the team would like to rest, but I don't require sleep so I'll start searching tonight." Reaper said.

"May it be that you just have reformed at least a bit Reaper. I'm impressed." McCree said.

"Yes the cowboy is correct." Osiris added.

"Talon still thinks I'm one of them," Reaper laughed, "I think I'll start there."

"Thanks, Reaper. Everyone else, you're dismissed to rest or do whatever the hell you please, but I suggest getting rest," Orpheus said, "Now, Jesse, you and I will stay with Osiris, just to be safe."

Reaper walked out of the room. The light faded as he walked farther. Then in an instant he dissipated into vapor and crossed to find a suitable target.


	14. This Ain’t No Place For A Hero

Reaper glided through the air in his ethereal form, until he saw the flashing lights of the Annecy base. He came up to the gate, still invisible to the naked eye, and slipped through the crack of the gate. He glided through the air unseen until he came to a dark alley. Reaper stopped and became normal again.

He walked out, as far as he knew, Talon just considered him M.I.A. so he'd have no trouble getting around, hopefully.

Reaper saw a lone soldier walking near. He turned to vapor again and came up behind him. Reaper came back to form and got the drop on the poor sod. Covering his mouth and throwing his gun aside, Reaper dragged him back to the alley. He picked the guard up with both hands on his neck.

"You're going to give me answers, grunt. I've been captured by Overwatch but I recently escaped. Now, if you answer right, I'm probably not going to kill you, but that's not a promise I can keep." Reaper finished with a minor chuckle.

"Talon was on high alert for any traces of you..." the guard said through a strained voice.

Reaper tightened his grip on the man's jugular.

"And?"

"They wanted you found ASAP since the demise of Widowmaker..."

Reaper looked down in anguish upon hearing her name. But he straightened himself back and kept questioning. However, he loosened his grip some.

"What about our good friend, Doomfist? How's he been?" Reaper said.

"He has been experimenting more with Tekryn, trying to improve it since that failure at Gibraltar. They were also talking about upgrading your form if you ever showed back up. You should talk to Moira." The soldier said.

"Now, one more question. What did they do with Dr. Angela Ziegler?" Reaper said, tightening his grip again.

"She's on... sub-level six... they've held her in a similar state to Widowmaker when we first got her."

Reaper let the man down.

"You're free to go." Reaper said.

"Really?" The soldier said.

"No... " Reaper said, cold and menacing, grabbing the man by the head with his right hand.

The man screamed faintly as Reaper drained his soul from his body, Reaper felt stronger every second. The man started slowly turning pale and withered. Reaper did not stop until the man became a husk. Then, until the husk became dust. Eventually a breeze picked up the ashes. Reaper pressed foward as daylight rose. He was headed to speak to the ever malevolent Moira O'Deorain.

Reaper walked through the sliding metallic doors. Moira was looking at something through a microscope.

"Doctor." Reaper said with distant hatred.

"Ah, Mr. Reyes. Just back in time, the inner council has ordered that you undergo an 'upgrade' if you will. You will quite literally become the wraith that I first envisioned when I thought of un-death." Moira spoke.

"Well. What will happen?" Reaper said, still cold as ice.

"Quite literally you will become immune to death. No matter how much physical damage you suffer, you will be able to reform your wounds, and your wraith form will be significantly better." Moira said.

"Then let's do it." Reaper said.

"We must begin immediately." Moira said.

She led Reaper to a vaguely familiar chamber. He was locked in a device that kept him upright and spread eagle. Then Moira walked to the control panel outside, shutting the door behind her. Moira used the controls to bring out a large needle on a robotic appendage. She injected Reaper with in, right in his black heart. He felt the power flow through him almost instantly, he felt stronger, faster, and deadlier overall. Then once the procedure was done, Moira relinquished the needle on the arm, and switched it for a .50 caliber rifle. Reaper thought they had lured him in to kill him, and he fell for it.

The bullet racked and echoed through the chamber Reaper felt his body go limp and he fell out of the harness, but then involuntary his body began to heal its wounds as he went into wraith form. He floated to the door and felt anger rise in him as he punched the wall, the hinges buckled and nearly came undone. Then another, after that it came loose. Moira met him at the control panel.

"It worked!" She bellowed madly.

"Were you trying to kill me?" Reaper said, his voice noticeably sounded more guttural and growly.

"Reaper do you actually believe Talon would tell me to kill you. No, no my dear friend, they wanted me to make you _un-killable._ The inner council knows you'd never betray them." Moira said walking off.

Reaper started laughing manically. He realized he couldn't die. _They gave me a healing factor, and enhanced strength! Idiots._ Reaper laughed out of humor. He figured they'd be more challenging to fool.

Reaper figured since he was here, he'd gather intel on Anubis. Then the body for Osiris. After that, there was a pretty safe bet that he'd book it. Reaper walked around the base, he figured he'd find out more about Anubis when they called a meeting for the council, if he was lucky he'd find out something about Angela. In the meantime he had a transmat unit he could use to send an omnic body back to Gibraltar. He went around to the barracks, he figured any old body would do, after all, Osiris just needed a foundation body, then he'd modify it to his standards.

Reaper turned the corner and wasn't paying attention and walked right into someone. It didn't affect him, he still stood straight up. He looked down and saw a girl who looked about twenty years old, rushing to pick up her scattered supplies. She had on a black and purple Talon jumpsuit on. She had medium length black hair with a single purple streak in the front.

"My bad." Reaper said halfheartedly.

He started to walk off when the girl looked up. Reaper looked down. She looked scared by his voice and mere presence. He felt her sorrowful golden eyes stare through the mask. There was something _familiar_ about her eyes. Then, all at once it hit Reaper like a twenty pound hammer.

 _Her eyes looked like Widowmaker's._

"Uh, sorry. Let me help you." Reaper said.

He squatted down and started picking up pencils and files that were scattered around. Then he came up on one with Widowmaker's picture and biology on it. Across the emotionless, mugshot-like picture read _deceased._ Reaper tuned into his thoughts, but the girl snatched the paper out of his hands and ran off with everything else.

"Hey! Wait!" Reaper growled.

Reaper was perplexed by the encounter as she faded out of sight. He tried to shake off the fearing uneasiness that was growing, but he couldn't. Reaper remembered where his room was, he walked to the door and input the code. While he waited for the magnetic locks on the door to open, he looked around. Widowmaker's name above her door was red, which meant she was dead, Talon was probably already looking to replace her. Orpheus's name above his door was white, which meant he was missing or went rogue, Reaper's door was the same. Everyone else had their name in green, meaning they were active.

The door opened and Reaper walked in. His room was the same way he left it. Just as normal, if not a bit dustier than usual. Reaper figured that this was a turning point in himself and his task. So he walked over to his closet and changed into a white clad suit exactly like his black one, but it had a chromed silver mask, and it was permanently stained with blood of the innocent that he is unable to wash away. Right now it was just up past his fingers, but who knows if that will last.

Reaper looked at himself in the bathroom mirror. It wasn't pretty but it was indeed what he had become. A wight of vengeance and now redemption, if you could call it that.


	15. Merciless

The cold walls offered no comfort, nor remorse to Angela. She had been taken three days ago by Talon in the battle at Gibraltar. She had no idea who had knocked her out, only that it had been hell since she got here. The guards had ripped her out of her armor as soon as she awoke, and had her in nothing but her bra and panties. She was scared to death that they would do something to her. They were also ruthlessly indecent, calling her frequent names like _bitch_ and _whore_ , she also thought she heard, _slut,_ thrown around once or twice.

She hadn't had anything to eat nor drink since they took her. She knew she'd suffer dehydration at some point today. She thought she heard a guard talk about Reaper coming back, apparently he was missing or something.

Angela felt the roof of her mouth with her tongue, both were equally as dry. She heard footsteps coming towards the cell. She made out the silhouette of a trio of soldiers. Surely enough the trio walked through the door. The leading one was noticeably more decorated than the other two. He was a black man, and wore the regular Talon outfit, but military green with many medals on his chest, he wore a thick black mustache and aviators.

They looked into her cell menacingly. One opened the door, they all three walked in. The main one hit her in the cheekbone with the stock of his rifle, stunning her. The other two grabbed her by the arms. The lead guard commanded them to follow him.

Angela was in and out for the trip, she suddenly woke up on an inclined table, tied down. She saw that her feet were at a much higher angle than her head. One of the guard led walked into the room with a cloth.

"Corporal Spencer, get the water." The General ordered, his voice thick and gravelly.

"Yes, General." Corporal Spencer said.

"Sergeant Vargas, get the damn water." The general said.

"With all due respect General Boone. Are you sure that this is entirely necessary? We have other ways to get her to talk." Vargas asked.

"Goddamn right, Maxson! Now get the goddamn water boy! Before I kick your ass into throat!" Boone said.

"Yes, sir." Vargas said.

He left the room as the Corporal came back with the cloth. Angela just now realized what was going to happen. _They were going to waterboard her. That illegal, though. Since when did Talon follow standards of human decency or even rules._ General Boone noticed she had woken up.

"Well well... What in the bluest of all blue hells to we have here?!" Boone said with a chuckle.

Angela was too weak to even speak.

"Goddamnit woman! When a superior officer is speaking you gotta listen dammit!" Boone yelled in her face.

Then, Sergeant Vargas came back with two buckets of water. Boone smiled devilishly.

"Mr. Maxson Vargas. Would you be ever so kind as to place one of the buckets close by, your gonna need one of them, heh. And now Mr. Derick Spencer! Cover her face, let's get this over with."

As Corporal Spencer put the cloth over her face, Angela finally found the strength to speak.

"Please, no!" She said, just before Spencer put the cloth on her.

Boone nodded and he held back. Boone walked over to her. He hit the back of his hand over the right side of her face, which was already sore from the stock of the gun. Angela yelping in pain, tried to struggle free.

"Alright boys! Let's get on with it!" Boone said.

Spencer put the cloth on her face this time and held it tight. Vargas momentarily hesitated but nonetheless poured a splash of water on Angela's face. Angela felt the water engulf her sinus. For a solid twenty seconds she couldn't breath, she felt like she was _drowning_. She began to physically struggle. Then she felt the cloth lift. Angela vomited water back onto her face. She felt it run into her eyes and ears.

Boone walked over to her and put his boot on her chest, with all his weight on it. Angela could barely breath.

"Now listen Ms. Ziegler, this is all we gonna do today, however, if you don't think you're gonna open up to us, then we've got more of this and worse in store. Cheers!" Boone said laughing.

He ordered the other two to untie her and they dragged her back to her cell. As a parting gift, Boone hit her right cheekbone with the butt of his rifle once more.

Angela gathered herself in the fetal position st the corner of her room, and begged for mercy. From god or _something,_ or from _anything._ She was so in pain. She wanted to just fade away, to just finally die. She was the woman known to reverse death, and now she herself wished for it. _Ironic._

She sat in her cell for hours until she heard heavy boots on the other side of her door. Then, _Reaper_ opened the door, now clad in white embellished robes. Angela accepted that there was no mercy here.


	16. Redemption

Reaper saw the broken, beaten, and near-dead form of the once proud Angela Ziegler. She was behind a cell door to a small prison cell. All too similar to that of Widowmaker's. He walked over and kneeled at the cell door. She turned and coughed up blood. She seemed to notice him, but she didn't seem to care. Reaper started to try and speak with her.

"I disabled the cameras and every other device that they use to monitor you Angela. And I locked the door." Reaper said.

"Why?" She said weakly.

"Because, I'm not with Talon anymore. In the same battle that you were taken, I purposely stayed behind at Gibraltar. Orpheus showed me a path to redemption, and I'll be damned if I waste it. I'm here undercover, Talon doesn't know I've defected." Reaper said.

Angela rose up a bit, but she found that she couldn't hold herself up. Reaper unlocked the cell door, and propped it open with a chair. He walked over to her and slowly helped her prop herself on the wall.

"Thank you." She muttered deliriously. Reaper started digging around in his pocket and talking.

"Listen, I wanted to say that I'm sorry. I blamed you for what happened to me when _you_ were the one who tried to save me." Reaper said as he pulled a pill capsule out of his jacket. He took the pill itself out and looked at Angela.

"Can you swallow this?" He said, pointing to the pill. Angela nodded, Reaper gave the pill to her.

"That was 600 milligrams of fentanyl. It was the strongest stuff I could get to ease your pain, but we're getting you out of here today, you can count on it." Reaper said, and he pulled a pager device out and held it between them. It rang twice and she heard the noticeable voice of Jesse McCree ask why Reaper was calling so goddamn early in the morning.

Orpheus raised up on his small mattress, he was looking to check the time. It said four fourty-six a.m. it had been roughly two hours since Reaper left. Orpheus figured that he could use all the allies he could in this crusade. The members of Overwatch were all talented individuals, but they simply weren't enough, even with the Talon defectors. Orpheus would have to go recruiting. He knew of some notable people who could offer help to his crusade. But that'd have to wait until daybreak, for now he was exhausted and could barely keep sleep fended off.

Once daylight hit, Orpheus arose with it. He walked out of the barracks and watched the sunrise. Something he hadn't done in far too long. But, the last time he did it, Angela was with him, at his side. Now she was incarcerated like an animal, _like Widowmaker was_. And with every passing second she could be drawing closer to becoming like her.

Orpheus stood in thought letting the sun hit his skin and raise his temperature, he was part reptile after all. Then he heard boots running up the steps to helipad. An exhausted McCree met him.

"Orpheus! Come here, we've got Reaper on a call, he needs to talk to you!" McCree said frantically.

"What?" Orpheus said confused.

McCree grabbed put the pager in his hand. Orpheus confusingly answered.

"Hello? Reaper? Is that you?" Orpheus said.

"Yeah, it's me. And I'm here with Angela, she can hear you." Reaper said.

"What!? Is she okay!?" Orpheus said as his heart started beating faster.

"She's kinda drowsy now. I gave her some painkillers. The strong stuff too." Reaper said, then Orpheus heard her voice cut through the mildly static silence.

"Who?" She said, "Is that Kenny?"

"No, it's Orpheus." Reaper said.

"Aww come on Gabe, their the same person." She said.

"I guess, you wanna say something, Orpheus?" Reaper said.

"Yeah... yeah... It's me Angela. It's me." Orpheus said.

"I miss you, Kenny. I miss you _so fucking much_. I just want things to go back to before." She said.

" _I know... I know..._ I miss you too. I'll be there soon, Reaper will protect you until then, but we're getting you out of there today. We'll be there soon. Get settled in, I need you to defend her, when we attack they'll immediately assume that we're coming for her." Orpheus said, fighting to hold back his tears.

"I can disable the base's anti aircraft protocols, that'll give you a chance to get everyone in the base, and you'll have an advantage with the cloak upgrades. Also I sent an Omnic body to the base, give Osiris my regards. Now, get here safe Orpheus." Reaper said, and he hung up the call.

Orpheus steeled himself and walked sternly off of the helipad and up to the command terminal. He pulled the mainframe of Osiris out in a core. He heard a transmat noise behind him. Orpheus turned and there lay an Omnic body, Orpheus peeled back the chest-plates, then he jammed the core into the chest of the omnic. It's eyes lit up glowing yellow.

"Osiris, online!" Osiris said, rising up to his feet.

Osiris looked at his hands, he thanked Orpheus, and started terraforming the body to his standards, generating the metal required at his bare whim. He formed a normal sized, yet still muscular looking form, and cut out many grooves as yellow light emanated from him.

"Orpheus. It is good to see through eyes if my own design." Osiris said.

"Good to see you in your full form." Orpheus said.

"Oh you don't know the half of it my organic friend. I'm not even close to my full potential." Osiris said, forming a large blade out of his hand.

"Perfect. But alas, we've no time to celebrate, we need to get to work. Reaper is in the Talon base in Annecy, with Angela, my fiancé. We have to move now, report to the hanger, Osiris." Orpheus said.

"With pleasure." Osiris said, and he morphed his feet to have thrusters on the heel, and he flew through the giant glass window.

Orpheus would soon follow, but first issued an alert from the command terminal, it was for all personnel to report to the hanger, and be ready for battle.

Once all the heroes were there, he climbed to the top of a dropship. With Osiris beside him, Orpheus drew his kris blade. _Too long it had been holstered._ Orpheusreadied himself for a speech to rally the troops.

"Men! Women! All of you brave souls who stand before me! Today shall not be a day for gloomily mourning. Today, dare I say _today_! Is the day we finally take the fight to Talon. Today, they will pay for everything that they have done. I stand not before you as a leader or commander, but simply as another victim, just like you all. Talon created what I am now, but we will destroy them for it! Their immoral standards have stood, stalwart in the face of the hammer of justice for far too long! Now, are you with me?!" Orpheus finished raising his blade to the air.


	17. Bittersweet Vengeance

Orpheus had thoughts going in and out of his mind at the speed of light. He speeded through the base waking everyone up, _the time is now. We rise! We fight! We win._

Orpheus knew that with Reaper on the inside, he could save her. He could save the once beloved. The dropships were already warm with fuel as Orpheus gathered his weapons, something he hadn't done in a long time. His kris blade felt perfect on his gauntlet. His rebreather hooked up with his suit for the first time in too long as well. The claws on his boots were still perfectly sharp.

Orpheus was ready. He sprinted to the dropship, McCree was waiting for him as Orpheus jumped into the ship. He immediately noticed the fact the Orpheus was in his original Talon gear. The robes were menacing with the jagged design of his rebreather and boots. He wore fingerless gloves now that showed the talons that had grew on his fingers.

Everyone looked up to him, _they wanted a speech. A rallying cry._

Orpheus extended the kris blade on his now worn right gauntlet and raised it to the sky. " _Valhalla_!" He yelled. And a cry of valor erupted from the soldiers in the dropship. Orpheus walked to the cockpit and saw McCree in the copilot seat, and Osiris controlling the plane.

"ETA, gents?" Orpheus said.

"Fifteen minuets at maximum. Then the Annecy base will be taken by storm." Osiris said.

"Godspeed." Orpheus said, moving back into the cargo hold.

Orpheus had devised that when Osiris flew over the Annecy base, he would divebomb Orpheus into the base, then circle into the encroaching wilderness with the other two and then they would start a frontal attack as Orpheus cut through their forces from behind.

At this point Orpheus cared naught what happened to himself. Only that Angela was safe, and he got revenge on the one who started this all. Akande Ogundimu. _Doomfist._ Orpheus felt rage boil inside of him with the bare thought of the man. The man who ruined the life of the once promising Kenny Morgan.

Orpheus drew his kris blade and his throwing disc. He sharpened the two off of each other. Sparks crashed to the ground until alarms started going off throughout the ship.

 _Talon's anti-aircraft system._

Then Orpheus heard the flares fly out. Then the cargo bay opened. Orpheus readied himself as the wind broke off of his chest. He slowly walked forward, thence he was at the tip of the gate. He spread his arms out and fell forwards. Once he started falling? Orpheus put his arms to side. Air whizzed by him, he felt as calm as ever.

Through the clouds he saw that goddamned base. _Annecy._ The place of origin for the being known as Orpheus, and the death of Kenny Morgan. Orpheus saw the ships land in the woods. Reinhardt and his newly recruited crusaders were leading the charge, the old son of a bitch himself at the precipice of the attack. Eventually they broke the treeline, when they did Orpheus had reached low altitude.

Orpheus used his left falconer gauntlet and brought up a keypad. He typed a code in and turned foot-first. He was flying down like a missle.

Orpheus connected with the ground in a spectacular showcasing. He had his force field rallied to his boots and when he landed it dispersed all the energy into an electromagnetic and ballistic shockwave.

Once the dust settled Orpheus saw the astonished look of Talon grunts recovering from the shockwave, _well the ones that weren't killed by it._

"Did you miss me boys?" Orpheus laughed.

His kris blade drew with a metallic noise. He charged the men, they tried to fire, but Orpheus had upgraded bigtime, the force field also acted as an over-shield, it had rerouted once the impact of the fall was distributed.

Orpheus sliced the first one in half at the waist. The second tried to attack from behind, Orpheus grabbed him from behind and threw him over his shoulder onto a nearby military vehicle, then he jumped to the man and cracked his skull with one punch to the forehead, killing him. Then Orpheus turned and launched his blade into the chest of the final man, empaling him on a wall nearby.

Orpheus walked up to the still living man, he looked him in the eye. The slit-pupils rendered him speechless, _that or the blade through the lung might._

Orpheus took out his throwing disc and cut the poor lad's throat. Orpheus then retrieved his blade, the body fell to the ground.

The blood-soaked assassin strided through the base with a disturbing amount of casualness. After a short walk from his initial landing he walked up behind a platoon full of different troops. Soldiers were at the front, heavy's in full suits of armor with dual mini-guns behind them, but then Orpheus saw the unnamed assassin drones clinging to the walls, silently waiting. He knew that they would shred the forces I'd not dealt with immediately.

Orpheus pulled out his throwing disc and aimed it. Once it left his hand, a wake of destruction followed. It went through the chest of the first assassin, the noise got the attention of the second one, only for it to go through his head. The third reacted in enough time to raise his arm and deflect the blade. It clattered back into Orpheus's hand.

As he holstered the throwing disc, the assassin eyed Orpheus. With one jump, it landed right in front of him. Orpheus drew kris blade and the opponents started circling each other, sizing them up. The assassin charged ravenously. It attacked with animalistic fury. Orpheus deflecting each jab with utmost precision. It drew back it anger, jabbing forward, Orpheus spinned to the left and hacked its arm off at the elbow in one quick swipe, rendering it's left arm blade useless. Then Orpheus grabbed the arm and came from behind, stabbing the assassin through the stomach with its own detached arm blade.

"Somnum..." He said, and snapped the neck of the assassin, killing it.

Orpheus dropped the pitiful sight and looked over, he saw the superior firepower of Talon's forces overwhelm the shields of Reinhardt and his crusaders. Orpheus ran and jumped up on the back of a heavy trooper and stabbed him through the neck joints of his armor multiple times. As he fell with a bang, the others looked over. They saw Orpheus. Their gaze was clouded with hate and vile ambition.

But before they could react, he heard a flaming engine. Reinhardt bellowed a valiant war cry and charged a heavy, he pushed the brute into a wall, crushing him in his armor. The grizzled old crusader turned and threw a fire charge at the other three heavy troops and the remaining foot soldiers. He stunned them long enough to come up on them and crush them with his hammer.

Orpheus was stunned to say the least, but he jumped in to help Reinhardt. He cleared the foot soldiers with ease, just three heavy troops left now. Orpheus jumped on the back of one and ripped his helmet off in enough time for the man to watch Reinhardt's hammer plaster his head. Now two. Orpheus ran up to another one and slid beside his knee, cutting it deeply. Orpheus ran to the other soldier and stabbed him in the neck, killing him. The last one fell to one knee, and looked up to see a fire charge hit him, followed by a hit from the bone-crushing rocket hammer. The heavy fell to his back, and Reinhardt raised his hammer high above his head, preparing for the final blow.

Then a singular precise shot was fired directly through a gap in Reinhardt's chest armor. Orpheus watched the bullet go through his dear old friend. Reinhardt dropped his hammer and fell to the cold and shattered concrete.

"No!" Orpheus bellowed in anguish.

He looked up and saw the glare of a scope. But just then, the rest of the rebel forces, rallied now by Genji, turned the corner. Orpheus turned his thermal vision on and was only able to see the shooter get away with a familiar looking grappling hook.

Orpheus looked back to see the medical team led by Brigitte taking the armor off of Reinhardt. He ran over to the old man. Once he was out of his armor they assessed the situation. The wound was a single gunshot to the chest. Reinhardt was gasping for breath as the medics tried in vain to save him. He looked over at Orpheus and grabbed his arm.

"Save her my friend..." was the last words the mighty Reinhardt Wilhelm ever spoke. His grip loosened and fell into the remains of his armor.


	18. Everything Has a Price

The world seemed to stand still in that hellish moment. Orpheus hoped it was simply a nightmare or a vision, anything. He looked at the lifeless body below him, Brigitte draped a sheath over his body. Orpheus looked up at everyone around him. They all looked at him with anger or tears, some both. He could feel their emotions weighing on him. Orpheus stood up emotionlessly.

 _He's gone._

 _Reinhardt is dead._

 _Nobody alive could have made that shot._

He was ranting to himself in his head. He was distracted by McCree shaking his shoulders.

"Orpheus! What the hell happened?" McCree asked.

Orpheus stared blankly momentarily then snapped back into reality.

"We took out the forces, but as he raised his hammer to kill the last one, he was stot by a sniper on that ledge." Orpheus said, pointing to it.

"Actually, I'm gonna go up there." Orpheus said, pushing McCree aside before he could protest.

Orpheus jumped onto the wall and scaled up to a nook, in between a tower and a building, which was a solid, eight hundred yards away from the group.

 _This is it. This is where the shot was made._

Orpheus looked around the area. He found nothing, no sign of anything or anyone ever being there. He activated his thermal vision to try and see _anything._ He looked and saw a small heat signature up and under a crevasse in the wall. He took it out, it was an enormous bullet casing, _still warm_. The bullet casing was from a .50 caliber round.

Orpheus kept this in mind. He climbed back down to the group of heroes and rebels. Without a word he showed them the bullet casing.

"All I was able to find out was that a .50 caliber shot killed Reinhardt. I'm going to return the favor to whoever did this, and I've got a good idea where to start." Orpheus said as he put the shell out n his pocket.

Osiris finally rounded the corner, he was in charge of docking the dropships safely earlier. His eyes widened in horror as he saw the dark scene. The group started talking amongst themselves, filling in Osiris on the events that took place. Orpheus ignored them and he walked into a building beside them, it was one of many armory buildings in the huge compound. He saw a belted holster, he took it and put it on. It had spots for bullets, it resembled a western gunslinger's belt, but with sleek black leather. He then walked over to a wall with guns on it, he picked out an assault rifle, with a grip and a suppressor, much like an old M4, he slung the weapon on his shoulder and grabbed multiple magazines, lining his belt with them. Then he picked out a huge revolver. It only had five chambers, but it was a magnum 500 revolver, in other words, it fired .50 caliber rounds.

Orpheus walked back outside, the group was arguing now. Orpheus calmly took out the revolver and loaded a single bullet into it. He pulled the hammer back and raised it to the sky, firing. The group jumped with fear.

 _The shot sounded too familiar for comfort._

"Now. Are you people done arguing? Reinhardt wouldn't want the team he gave damn near his whole life up for to be arguing like bitchy children. I'm sure he wanted to go out like his mentor, Baldreich, _not like this_ , but we can't change a damn thing, we must ensure that his death _will not_ go in vain. Doomfist ordered the shot, someone else pulled the trigger. I'm gonna kill both of them." Orpheus said walking off.

Some of the group followed, mostly the ones who knew Reinhardt, the rest did not follow, they instead starting chattering anxiously. Orpheus looked back, with hatred in his eyes.

"Are you _all_ with me or not? We still have an entire terrorist organization to overthrow. I've got enough hatred for it, but not enough bullets. We have to strike together. Avenge Reinhardt!" Orpheus said.

This got them exited, a few even shouting in agreement, but once a few started following him, the rest did. Orpheus successfully rallied his troops. Now they walked once more into the gates of hell.

Orpheus marched forward, he was going to fight no matter what. That was never changing. Soon they all followed. As they started to round a corner, Orpheus signaled for them to stop. He looked around the corner, Talon had already set up a checkpoint in response to the attack. Something had to be done, if the entirety of them rounded the corner, they'd all be killed in a heartbeat. He gathered his remaining lieutenants for a quick game plan. It was McCree, Reaper, and Reinhardt, but Reaper was in the base and Reinhardt was K.I.A. as much as he dreaded to say. So he only had McCree left, therefore he elected Genji as one of his lieutenants.

"What's the plan." McCree said.

"Stealth seems to be our best option, however we have too large a force for that." Genji said.

"Read my mind Genji. You and I are best suited for it, I say we go in, one on each side." Orpheus said.

"If you guys can take out all the lookouts and snipers, I can bring us around and decimate the remaining ground troops." McCree said.

"Well, hell fellas. Sounds like a plan to me, now let's put it into action! Genji you take left, I'll go right." Orpheus said.

Genji nodded and jumped on a crate and onto the wall, scaling it. Orpheus cloaked and crossed the gap to the right side.


	19. The Devil You Once Knew

Orpheus climbed the wall with grace. He reached the top of the wall and signaled Genji to halt. Orpheus activated his target acquisition device and counted twenty enemies; fourteen on the ground and six at vantage points. He sent the data to McCree.

Orpheus signaled Genji to proceed forward. He slowly walked forwards. Genji took out his small wakizashi and slit the watchmen's throat. Orpheus moves up and downed his by snapping his neck. Genji moved up to the second and took him down to the ground, covering his mouth then stabbing him in the chest. Orpheus moves up, still cloaked and trips the guard and after he hit the ground, he caught a boot to the skull, before he could yell. This obviously shattered his skull. Genji walked stealthily up to his final target, but just before he delivered the blow, the guard on Orpheus's side saw him and raised his gun to fire at the cyborg ninja. Orpheus shot his kris blade into the man's chest out of panic. Genji delivered the fatal blow to his guard noticing the divergence from the original plan.

Orpheus retrieved his blade and contacted McCree to let him know the watchmen were all down. He brought the force up to the gate and waited until Orpheus's signal to break the stealth. Orpheus pulled out the assault rifle he had requisitioned earlier, he fired at the remaining ground units at the checkpoint. Once they all were looking at Orpheus, the group turned and in a storm of bullets the checkpoint was clear.

Orpheus jumped down from the scaffolding. He searched a guard for a key to the gate ahead of them, they must've been getting close at this point. Orpheus needed this to come to a head soon.

He found a keycard and walked up to the next gate, he tried to open it but it was denied, confused Orpheus tried to open it again, this time the gate behind them slammed shut. Orpheus turned in shock. He watched as a battalion of Talon troops surrounded the scaffolding ring around them. _It was a trap._ Then Orpheus saw _him_. Doomfist walked out of the shadows. Orpheus felt anger ride within him just at the mere sight of the bastard.

"It has been much too long, Mr. Morgan. Or might I say, _Orpheus_?" Doomfist laughed.

Then in a rain of bullets, the troops had gunned down the rebels that were with them. _Everyone. Dead_. _And I couldn't do anything._ Orpheus felt a pit form in his chest. The remaining heroes gathered together, Orpheus, Osiris, McCree, Soldier: 76, Brigitte, and Genji. The six of them formed a circle back to back. Osiris attempted to activate his power but before he could a soldier launched a dart into his chest, paralyzing him.

Doomfist laughed and he walked back into the shadows, this time he came out holding Angela by her head. Orpheus looked up at her. She was broken, beaten, and bleeding. Everyone looked up in horror.

"We gave it everything we had, Orpheus, we tried..." McCree said, loading his revolver.

"It was an honor fighting alongside you all, especially you, Orpheus." Genji said.

Orpheus looked up at Angela in Doomfist's grasp, and then so many things cane flooding back. All the memories of Kenny and Angela, the memories of Orpheus's creation. He could feel the rage boiling inside of him by the moment. Doomfist started to say something but Orpheus let out a rage-filled yell and drew his sixgun and fired at Doomfist, missing, but this still caused a distraction. Orpheus holstered the gun and drew his blade, he cloaked and start climbing the wall, this spooked the soldiers and they started shooting at him desperately. The remaining four used this distraction to get into a nearby hover tank.

Orpheus reached the top in a crazed frenzy. He landed and uncloaked, cutting through soldiers like tin. One tried to stab him, the fool missed and Orpheus reached up and bit him in his exposed throat, he ripped it out as the soldier stumbled backwards and fell into the pit. Orpheus had clearly reached and broken the threshold. Eventually there were enough parts of the soldiers laying on the ground, that the remaining ones had fled.

It was now just Doomfist and Orpheus. Angela standing between them. Doomfist threw Angela aside.

"Come on you self-righteous fuck, give me a reason not to rip your goddamn heart out." Orpheus said, he voice seemingly doubled over with fury.

"Because I did not have any heart to start with Kenneth." Doomfist said.

Orpheus let out an enraged cry and charged, Doomfist powered up a rocket punch, Orpheus slid under the fist, and cut Doomfist's midsection. Once they both stopped, they started circling each other. Taunting each other, Doomfist ran up, and punched Orpheus with a left uppercut, then he slammed his gauntlet into the side of Orpheus, sending him flying.

As soon as he landed he was back up, with Doomfist running at him again. He dodged the gauntlet, Orpheus punched him in the thigh, and before he pulled back, he extended the blade, cutting into the leg. Doomfist grunted in pain, Orpheus detached his blade and punched Doomfist in the face, then Orpheus grabbed the blade with his bare hand and yanked it out violently. It slid back into its place.

Orpheus kicked him in the leg once more, and quickly drew his revolver and shot his foot, below the leg wound, he shot it once through the middle, then, Orpheus shot him through the midsection. Doomfist reacted by punching him in the stomach once, then another time sending him airborne, and the revolver off to the side.

Orpheus gathered his bearings, Doomfist was swiftly encroaching. Orpheus shot his blade at Doomfist, and he hit the brute in the shoulder where his gauntlet connected. This distracted Doomfist, and Orpheus seized his moment, crawling for the gun, but as soon as he grabbed it, Doomfist got ahold of his leg, and started dragging him, Orpheus turned around and fired, just barely only grazing the side of Doomfist's head.

However this made him let go of Orpheus, he holstered the gun and ran up, kicking the kris blade through his adversary. But Doomfist reacted quickly and was done playing defense. He slammed his knuckles into Orpheus' chest, sending him into a nearby wall.

Doomfist grabbed Orpheus by his foot again and slung him over his head, slamming him into the metal catwalk below. Then he lifted him above his head again and launched him, Orpheus landed in a bleeding heap, in front of Angela.

"Orpheus..." She said.

Orpheus couldn't say anything, he slid her the revolver, and a reloading cartridge. Then Doomfist grabbed him by the midsection with the gauntlet. He lightly crushed Orpheus causing him great pain. Orpheus felt a searing, stabbing pain in his chest, like someone shot him in the lung. Then with his left hand Doomfist grabbed Orpheus by the neck.

"Do you have any last words, Orpheus? Before I crush you like the insect you are." Doomfist said.

"God... goddamn... y-you..." Orpheus said.

Doomfist started crushing his windpipe, but Orpheus mustered enough strength to pull his knife from his belt, and he jammed it directly into the neck of Akande Ogundimu. The pressure on Orpheus' neck was slowly loosening.

"I hereby claim my vengeance." Orpheus spoke.

"I _will_ kill you." Doomfist said weakly.

Orpheus felt the grip tighten, and then- _boom_! A new hole appeared on the side of Doomfist's head. Orpheus looked over and saw Angela holding the smoking magnum.

Doomfist's corpse dropped Orpheus and fell backwards slamming into the metal below.

Angela threw the gun aside and rushed over to Orpheus. She came up on him, wheezing and gasping for breath.

"Orpheus, I-I think you are severely hurt." Angela said.

"Well wh-what g-gave that away?" Orpheus chuckled, his chuckle turning into a painful and bloody cough.

"I think I'm dying, Angela." Orpheus said, he unzipped his robes and a vest beneath to show broken ribs puncturing through his skin, and no doubt through one of his lungs, if not both.

"No, no! I can help you, we just need to get you out of here." Angela said frantically.

"No. Angela, I think this is the end of my road." Orpheus said.

"No this cannot happen. We've both fought _so_ hard, only to get just to _this_ "? Angela said, now starting to cry.

"I'm afraid that's the bitter truth of it. I've got nothing left to give. I said I was gonna kill Doomfist and save you if it was the last goddamn thing I did. And that's what I did." Orpheus spoke.

"I wish I could save you, I wish that things could've been different, maybe in a perfect life. Because I can't loose you again... I-I can't." Angela said crying into her hands.

"Hell, I was more of a ghost than a man. You however, you made it Angela. You're the only one that did. But I gave it all I had. In the end. I... I did."

And with those final words, Angela felt the life slip from Orpheus. In the end, he had saved the woman he loved, and held the last words over his nemesis.


	20. Addendum

The world was seemingly cold. A year after the death of Orpheus, we find his comrades, Angela Ziegler, Genji Shimada, Jesse McCree, and Gabriel Reyes, still coping with the premature loss of Orpheus.

Angela woke up in the dead of the night. Three thirty-nine to be precise. She hadn't taken Orpheus' death well, and still couldn't spiritually accept it, even though he died right in her arms. She couldn't sleep on her own sometimes and needed sleeping pills to aid her. Oftentimes she unintentionally slept for near twelve hours. Anything she could use to choke the pain, the heartache, she used it. She looked at the clock, three forty-one now. She put her face in her hands, but she did not weep. She just thought. Wondering why she was put on this world. She had seven years to grieve and it still wasn't enough. She rolled back into bed and tried to drift back into sleep, unsuccessfully.

Jesse McCree was once again drifting from place to place, now however he had begun bounty hunting. He figured eventually he'd pay off his own bounty then move north, maybe retire in the Yukon. Jesse had changed his ways drastically. He no longer believed that the justice would prevail, he now only believed the inherent evil in the world, and he was taking out some of those bad things. He didn't see himself as the peacekeeper he once was, now he was just a lonesome man, pretty much waiting to die.

McCree had changed his looks drastically as well, he now had close cut hair, and a medium length full beard. He had changed his clothes completely as well, he now wore black boots with black tanned leather half-chaps a pair of old rugged ranch pants, and a black embossed gun-belt and matching holsters set in a reverse fashion. He wore a red and black flannel shirt with a dark red embossed leather vest, and a black bounty hunter duster coat. The only way you could tell it was still McCree was the voice and his worn old hat.

Gabriel has felt guilt weighing in him since that day. Yes they won, killing Doomfist and pushing Talon into hiding. But at a high price. One almost too high to burden. _Orpheus. Widowmaker. Reinhardt._ Will the death end? For a man called "Reaper," Gabe was tired of his comrades dying. He wanted it to end. Gaberiel found himself living alone now, since Orpheus' team had disbanded. He hung up the robes and mask. There was nobody to fear his true face. An old Talon orbital traveler had become his home, housing everything he needed and nothing more.

Genji had accepted the events that occurred. He was spending his days in the very monastery he used to live in. He spent his days meditating or training. Time was growing shorter. Genji was clueless as to what happened to the rest of his friends. They all separated after the death of Orpheus. He was the one that brought them together. And ironically his death separated them. But Genji was beginning to tire of the sitting, the doing nothing. He knew that Talon was regrouping in the shadows. They could very well be ready to seek vengeance at any moment.

Genji walked to his dragonblade on its pedestal. The cyber mask sitting above it. The world needed Overwatch. Genji would be damned if he would let it fall into ruin again. Not after Orpheus.


End file.
